# Is It Possible To Breed Cyclopean Sheep?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-breed-cyclopean-sheep/239975
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 14, 2004, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-breed-cyclopean-sheep/239975 "2004-04-14T15:18:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2004, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-breed-cyclopean-sheep/239975/1 "2004-04-14T15:18:34Z")
Rocky Mountain skunk cabbages are said to contain a toxin that, when ingested by a ewe during a critical phase of her pregnancy, can cause a deformity in the offspring that causes it to become a cyclops.
Are these cyclopean sheep ever viable, or is this deformity associated with more profound defects? A single, centrally-located eye doesn’t seem like it would be a severe enough encumbrance to have a significant impact on a sheep’s ability to survive.
What would happen to the offspring if a pregnant _human_ were to consume this particular variety of cabbage?
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2004, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-breed-cyclopean-sheep/239975/2 "2004-04-14T16:32:20Z")
Most of what I found said the lambs are unviable because related deformities to the cyclops eye keep them from breathing. I was still able to find one photo of what appeard to be a live lamb so it may depend on the severity. [http://www.sammybe.blogspot.com/2004\_01\_01\_sammybe\_archive.html](http://www.sammybe.blogspot.com/2004_01_01_sammybe_archive.html) Scroll about halfway down.
Similar deformities can happen in humans but I was not able to find if the alkaloid in skunkweed caused them. Again viability depends on how severe the deformity is.
[http://www.ivis.org/special\_books/Knight/chap8/ivis.pdf](http://www.ivis.org/special_books/Knight/chap8/ivis.pdf) isworth a read.
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2004, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-breed-cyclopean-sheep/239975/3 "2004-04-14T17:57:29Z")
This is the first I’ve heard of cyclopean sheep, so I’m hardly an expert, but I suspect the chemical in question screws up some physical process during fetal development, like intracellular signaling or something. I’d be surprised if it actually rearranged the fetus’s DNA into a cyclops configuration.
And, of course, if the DNA is not, in fact, being altered, the train would not be passed on to the next generation.
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2004, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-breed-cyclopean-sheep/239975/4 "2004-04-14T18:18:28Z")
Aside from getting the animal on the front page of supermarket tabloids, and possibly getting a new meaning for “old one-eye,” what’s the point?
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### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2004, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-breed-cyclopean-sheep/239975/5 "2004-04-14T19:55:00Z")
Well, they would have just a little bit more wool.
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-breed-cyclopean-sheep/239975/6 "2004-04-15T00:16:25Z")
Limited peripheral vision would allow the shepherds to snaek up behind them easier.
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### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-breed-cyclopean-sheep/239975/7 "2004-04-15T03:12:57Z")
Any wolf that tried to eat it would run up to it, then stop and stair at the single eye for a few moments, before getting all wierded out and wandering away 🙂
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-breed-cyclopean-sheep/239975/8 "2004-04-15T06:08:45Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#):
>
> Limited peripheral vision would allow the shepherds to snaek up behind them easier.
Yeah, sure, yeah, sure. Ya know what really honks me off, though? Geese!