Every football Saturday, Rameses, the four-footed, blue-horned mascot of the UNC football team, trots onto the field with the Tar Heels, just as his predecessors have done for 86 years. He's probably the best-known non-human resident of Chapel Hill.

So it may come as some surprise to learn that he's one of a dying breed.

The current Rameses, like all his 17 predecessors, is a breed of sheep known as the Dorset Horn. And the population of Dorset Horns, according to the Pittsboro-based American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, is rapidly dwindling; the organization's most recent estimate is that there are no more than 1,600 individuals left in the world.

"The Dorset Horn is definitely in decline," said Jennifer Kendall, ALBC's marketing and communications director. "They have become a conservation priority for us."

The ALBC each year issues a Conservation Priority List, which tracks livestock and poultry breeds with an eye toward identifying and conserving those whose populations fall to perilously low levels.

"People know that wild species of birds and mammals are in danger of extinction, but few people realize that over 180 breeds of domesticated livestock and poultry are threatened with the same fate," said Marjorie Bender, research and technical programs director for ALBC. "The goal of this list is to provide a snapshot of a breed's population at a given point in time."

Oreo cows and giant donkeys

The recently released 2010 list drops the Dorset Horn from Watch status (fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the U.S. and a global population of less than 10,000) to Threatened (fewer than 1,000 registrations, population under 5,000). The only category below Threatened is Critical (fewer than 200 registrations, population under 2,000).

"It is a concern," said Rameses' owner Rob Hogan, whose family has raised every Rameses since the first one in 1924. "It may prompt me to try to keep a few more around. They're hard to find. I know a couple of flocks in Virginia, and we'll be heading up to take a look at a small flock near Danville next month. I'd like to get a ewe or two to breed, and hopefully have another ram or two born here."

Several other breeds on the 2010 ALBC list are found in this area as well, including the Belted Galloway cattle -- the beloved "Oreo cows" -- of Fearrington Village.

Unlike Dorset Horn sheep, Belted Galloways are gaining ground; the list classifies the breed as Recovering, meaning its numbers have increased after previously dropping to a level of concern, although it still warrants monitoring.

American Mammoth Jackstocks, among the breeds raised at Chapel Hill's Big Woods Farm, are also on the rebound after coming perilously close to vanishing altogether. Mammoth Jackstocks, the world's largest breed of donkey, have improved from the Critical category to Threatened status.

'Eat them to save them'

The ALBC doesn't just track populations; it also actively works to try to promote conservation of endangered breeds. That involves everything from education and research to preserving genetic material to helping breeders and farmers develop markets for their livestock.

"In most cases, in order for a breed to survive it has to have a job to do," Kendall said. "For a lot of livestock and poultry, that means the dinner table. It seems counterintuitive to say we have to eat them to save them, but if there's no market, if there's no incentive, farmers won't breed them. So it's a tricky balance. That's why the list is critical; it helps us understand what needs to be preserved, and what the best approach for a particular breed might be."

The problem with horns

Out at Hogan's Magnolia View Farm, Rameses is currently the only one of his kind in the pasture. Hogan usually tries to keep a family of Dorset Horns on the farm, but the last ewe he brought in for breeding died of unknown causes before she could have lambs.

Dorset Horns are productive sheep: they're steady wool producers, good natured, easy to raise, heat-tolerant and, unlike most breeds, they can have lambs twice a year.

So why the decline?

The problem with Dorset Horns, it turns out, is their horns.

Both rams and ewes have horns. For most commercial purposes, horns are worse than useless. They get in the way. They can injure other sheep and they are susceptible to breakage; Ramses' father, in fact, died of complications after he lost a horn.

In 1954, scientists at N.C. State succeeded in breeding a hornless, or "polled," Dorset ram. Now polled Dorsets are the second most common sheep breed in the United States. The horned originals, like Rameses, are dying out.

"If I was raising sheep for market, I'd go with polled ones," Hogan said. "But I'm one of the few people who needs horned sheep. Rameses wouldn't worth a toot without horns. But he has a pretty specialized job. There aren't a lot of openings anymore for live animal mascots."