The breed has gotten closer to extinction more times than almost any other breed.

He called the sheep, the Max Flockians, a dead loss commercially.

He had almost no support for keeping them going, but he did.

And he made sure that in the 1950s and 1960s, a few animals were transported to zoos in England. Reason? Because they needed some sheep somewhere else just in case.

What you just heard sounds like something out of a thriller.

Okay, maybe a thriller for fiber geeks, but still.

A rare animal hustled out of the country in a last-ditch attempt to save it.

But it's a true story.

On today's episode, we travel to the Isle of Man and hear the story of one of its oldest inhabitants, the Manx-Luckton sheep.

A sheep that's been on the brink of extinction not once or twice, but three times.

And we'll talk about not just how it was saved, but why some things are worth saving in the first place.

I'm Alison Kourleski, and you're listening to Fibernation, tales of textiles located between England and Ireland. At 220 square miles, it's about the size of Chicago, but with just 1% of that city's population,

maybe 85,000 people. It's cool and rainy much of the year. Craggy hills and sea cliffs in the south

give way to rolling hills and flat farmland in the north. It even has a mountain range,

okay, not terribly big mountains, in the center of the aisle. If you're thinking about

visiting, the Isle of Man has 502 reviews on Google, most of them positive. The Isle of Man has

been inhabited since the Stone Age. The Romans knew about it and maybe went there, but it was

pretty much left alone by outsiders until the 8th century, when Vikings were all over the

British Isles, bringing their customs, their languages, and their sheep.

One of the descendants of those sheep, Manx Lockton's, are the stars of today's episode. But unless

you're a hand spinner, there's a good chance you've never even heard of the Manx-Lockton.

You've probably seen one, though,

...