When you buy a warm winter jacket, the tag might say it is made of 'Polar Fleece'. But long before the word was used for synthetic clothing, it had a very specific, natural meaning in animal biology and agriculture.
Fleece is the dense, curly, woolly coat of thick hair that covers the entire body of a sheep or a similar animal (like an Alpaca or a Goat).
Definition: The complete woolly coat of a sheep or goat.
Hindi Meaning: ऊन (Oon) or भेड़ के बाल (Bhed ke baal).
Shearing: The painless agricultural process of shaving the fleece off the animal.
Function: To biologically insulate the animal against freezing weather.
End Product: The fleece is washed, dyed, and spun into yarn to make Wool.
Sheep are naturally designed to live in freezing, harsh mountain environments. Their fleece acts as a massive biological insulator. The curly hairs trap a thick layer of dead air right next to the sheep's skin. This prevents the sheep's body heat from escaping into the freezing wind, keeping the animal warm enough to survive sub-zero blizzards.
Because sheep continuously grow hair just like humans, their fleece becomes excessively heavy and unbearably hot during the summer. Once a year (usually in Spring), farmers use large electric clippers to shave the entire coat of wool off the sheep in one massive, single piece. This specific agricultural process of shaving the fleece off a live sheep without hurting it is called Shearing.
If you look closely at a sheep's fleece, it is actually made of two different types of fibers:
Fleece is the thick, curly, woolly coat of hair that covers a sheep, which is shorn off by farmers to produce commercial wool.
The process of safely cutting or shaving the fleece off a live sheep is called Shearing.
No, it is completely painless. It is exactly the same as a human getting a haircut. In fact, if a sheep is not sheared, the massive weight of the fleece can trap the sheep and cause it to overheat in summer.
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