Sheep will play with man made balls just like humans. That said, this is not the story of someone who gave sheep a ball to play with and have a lot of fun.
In the YouTube video “What Happens When You Decide to Leave a Tetherball in the Forest” on the Angry Ram channel, a guy decides to hang a tetherball at ram-height in the middle the forest on a stony path and place cameras around the path to catch what happens. Given the name of his YouTube channel, it’s obvious his intent was to make a ram angry.
The result is both scary and fun to watch!
The ewes ignored the ball and ran around it, but the ram growled in anger, backed up a considerable distance and then attacked it. As the ball bounced back and hit him, in a fashion that the ram no doubt saw as an attack, he attacked again in retaliation.
The entire video is of the ram getting seemingly angrier and angrier. As the ball started to fall apart and slow down, the ram dug into the ground with his foot as a warning and attacked again. When a ewe showed interest, he butted her with his horns and went back to the ball. The video stops before showing whether the ram ended his attacks because he grew disinterested or the ball fell apart.
It is still a great video to watch for anyone who wants to see the attack behaviors of rams!