8. Comparison of Exterior Parametårs of In Situ Conserved Karakachan Sheep with the Breed Type from the First Half of the Twentieth Century

The nomad shepherds in Bulgaria were forced to settle down in the middle of the XX century. The herds of Karakachan sheep were nationalized. With few exceptions they were subjected to crossing with foreign, more productive breeds. ,Currently two types of animals are found in the contemporary population of the Karakachan sheep breed. The first is visually similar to the original type described by researchers in the first half of the twentieth century. The second differs noticeably from the original type in a number of exterior features.
We did a comparative analysis of some exterior parameters for a contemporary typical population conserved in situ in the Pirin Mountains and the original Karakachan sheep described by Hlebarov (1942), Milic (1954) and Baric (1952). Exterior measurements were made of 90 Karakachan sheep from the flock kept in the Pirin Mountains.
The results show that the historically described sheep and the contemporary populations surveyed by us have similar parameters. That fact is indicative of a well-conserved breed type.