Wild and Woolly: Deer Joins Sheep Flock

Even deer get lonely, it seems. A young red deer in England has been accepted into a flock of about 100 sheep, and seems quite content living, eating and sleeping with his new friends.

"I've been involved with sheep all my life but I've never seen deer interact with them," Andrew Capell, the flock's shepherd, told the BBC. "They seem to have accepted him as one of their own."

Animals have an uncanny ability to form friendships outside their own species. Polar bears and dogs, elephants and sheep — even tigers and black bears have found kinship.

The National Trust hopes the deer will rejoin his own herd if it wanders through the area, the BBC reports. But in the meantime, it appears the deer and the sheep are getting along famously.

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Marc Lallanilla has been a science writer and health editor at About.com and a producer with ABCNews.com. His freelance writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and TheWeek.com. Marc has a Master's degree in environmental planning from the University of California, Berkeley, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin.