A ewe on an Irish sheep farm has given birth to six lambs, in what is thought to be a one-in-a-million occurrence.
The ewe on a farm near the County Offaly town of Birr gave birth over seven hours on her own over the Christmas holiday, reports RTÉ News.
Farmer Mervin Hardy told RTÉ that the three-year-old Texel Cross ewe on the farm was mated to a Charollais ram.
The lambs have been festively named Carol, Ivy, Holly, Prancer, Lancer and Rudolf.
RTÉ said the chances of six births by one mother on one occasion was as rare as one in a million.
The three new female lambs were to be kept as breeding ewes on the farm while the three male lambs were expected to be sold later as rams.
In 2013 a New Zealand ewe rose to fame after producing five lambs on a farm in Marlborough's Waihopai Valley.
Farmer Kelly Burmaz told Newshub at the time that it wasn't the first multiple birth for the mother.
"In the last four years she's had four lambs each year," said Burmaz.
The survival of the quins was helped by homemade jackets which helped keep them warm and dry.
In 2018 a pet ewe in Nelson also gave birth to five lambs.
Owner Julie Webb-Brownlee said pre-pregnancy scanning indicated that Charlie - an East Friesian and Awassi cross - would probably give birth to triplets.
"It surprised me how 20 sets of legs came out non-tangled," said Webb-Brownlee.
