Ovis

The Ovis (Oh-vis) is one of the Creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved

Behavior
One of the many peaceful creatures on the Ark, Ovis will not attempt to attack in any way, much preferring to flee to safety. The Ovis otherwise ignore other creatures and players entirely. When attacking on foot, be cautious of placement. Ovis will clamber up steep rocks with ease and leave you without easy access.

Appearance
The Ovis looks much like a modern-day domestic sheep, though slightly larger. The most prominent feature of Ovis is the horns of the males, which are highly ornate. There are six horns; two pointing straight, two spiralling like some breeds of rams and two small horns on the cheeks. None of the horns have grooves in them.

Combat
This section describes how to fight an Ovis.

General
Ovis are harmless creatures that can be easily killed by any player. Hitting an Ovis with a is enough to kill it easily, though this runs with the risk of wasting the survivor's.

Strategy
Although they are a trivial kill, they can drop a large amount of pelt that is quite heavy, so it's usually best to pick them up with and fly them home before killing them. Most players prefer to tame them. (See Taming)

Weaponry
Not much weaponry is required to take down the Ovis, just make sure to bring a and  for the predators that reside in their habitat.

Dangers
While the Ovis itself poses no actual threat, the area it lives in usually contains and other dangerous predators, the spawn locations are also usually very cold so make sure to bring  when hunting.

Weakness
In addition to its low health, it has low stamina, which means a tamed Ovis can't run away for long before running out of stamina.

Passive Strategy
The Ovis is a passive tame; all one has to do is walk up to it and feed it Sweet Vegetable Cake, it will only need one Sweet Vegetable Cake even at higher levels making it an easy tame, however Sweet Vegetable Cake can be expensive and spoil quickly. While the Ovis itself presents no real threat, native predators such as, , and  can provide a threat to both the player and the Ovis.

It is strongly advised to have a air-carrier such as  to transport Ovis from the place it is tamed to your home, or use a. Navigating on foot or riding the Ovis will almost always send you in front of a local predator.

Feeding
One piece of cake is enough to tame an Ovis at any level.

Although the Ovis is passive tamed with Sweet Vegetable Cake, they are able to be fed with berries to top up their food both from their inventory or a feeding trough once tamed.

Roles

 * Farm Animal: Due to the Ovis's unique shearing mechanic attacking them with a pair of adds  to your inventory. As of v254.5, the Ovis generates Wool faster as its Food stat increases. It is not necessary to tame the Ovis in order to shear it; any Ovis can be sheared. (Level Food)


 * Mountain Climber: The Ovis has the ability to climb very steep cliffs, making an ideal mountain climber (still being beaten by the ). (Level Health and Speed)


 * Food Source: The Ovis drops when slaughtered; a very efficient taming food for carnivores. Raw Mutton tames most carnivorous creatures approximately 1.5x faster than their preferred kibble in exchange for a slight decrease in taming effectiveness. It can also be cooked to make ; an extremely beneficial food. The amount of Raw Mutton increases with the Health stat.
 * To efficiently slaughter an Ovis, wield a Pick and select Slaughter from the Ovis' radial menu. The of the Ovis greatly affects the amount of Raw Mutton received, a level 10 ovis gives around 10-25, while a level 300 could give over 1000. (Level Health)


 * Hide Source: The Ovis drops when slaughtered, especially when using a  spec'd for Delicate, or a . Like Raw Mutton, the amount of Hide increases with the Health stat. (Level Health)


 * Pet: Due to the Ovis' overall cuteness, it can make a great pet. While not being able to ride on your shoulder like a or, they are small enough to fit in most locations. (Level Movement Speed and Weight)

Breeding
If a gestating ewe is on the ground when giving birth, the baby is often forced under the ground, making it impossible to reach. If she is on a ceiling, the baby often, but not always, falls through the ceiling. The best solution is to put the ewe facing uphill on a ramp or on a table, which tosses the baby into the air behind the ewe, and allows it to fall naturally onto the surface of whatever is under it.

Collectibles
The Ovis does not collect any resources by itself. However it can be sheared for using  which can allow survivors without access to  to create Fur Armor and explore the snowy areas of the map, and killed for, for food for taming and feeding carnivores, and cooking for feeding players.

Notes/Trivia

 * Dino Dossier revealed on 12/26/2016.
 * The sheep dossier was revealed in conjunction with the steam award for "best use of a farm animal". The developers stated that the sheep was going to be released with the next patch if ARK won the award. However, if ARK did not win, the sheep was going to be released regardless, just at a later date. The original post mentioning the Ovis caused some backlash in the community, and the developers reworded it and tried to clarify their intentions.
 * Interestingly, the dossier for Ovis features two different taxonomic names - one being Ovis Aries (the officially acknowledged name), and the other being Ovis Arcam (which translates to Sheep of the Ark). Perhaps this indicates another similar animal yet to be announced, or is a nod toward the sexual dimorphism displayed in the contrast between the ewe (female) and ram (male) in the dossier. Then again, similar errors have been made in dossiers before (such as the Dodo dossier).
 * It is a good idea to tame the Ovis whenever you see one in the wild, as they are very rare (Depending on the map), and you can kill them later if you are in need of.
 * Ovis do a tiny amount of damage to creatures they hit while you ride them. Due to hitbox glitchyness, the Ovis attacks in a small AOE behind them even though their attack animation is a forward headbutt. This torpor attack is almost useless for any creature with more torpor or hostility than a  due to the extremely low health of Ovis.
 * While Ovis are generally non-hostile, wild male Ovis will occasionally attempt to run at the player and cause torpor. It is unknown exactly what causes this, but it has been observed when they are boxed in or cornered, the otherwise passive have also been observed doing this.
 * Although Ovis is described as having a "stupid" temperament, real sheep are known to be quite intelligent.
 * Real sheep are social animals that live in herds, however Ark's Ovis doesn't have this behavior as they are incredibly rare and spawn in groups of 1-3 usually.