Like the Pinzirita and the Altamurana, it belongs to the Zackel sheep group.
It is a hardy and frugal breed, usually kept in semi-feral herds, capable of surviving year-round on pasture alone.
In a small proportion of animals the wool is entirely black, and the skin is also black; these black-skinned sheep are resistant to the effects of the poisonous Hypericum crispum, common in the Salento, which in the white-woolled, pale-skinned sheep causes photosensitivity and thus dermatitis.
[3] The Leccese is one of the seventeen autochthonous Italian sheep breeds for which a genealogical herdbook is kept by the Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia, the Italian national association of sheep-breeders.
[5] The milk yield of the Leccese averages 76 ± 21 litres in 180 days for primiparous, and 99 ± 37 L for pluriparous, ewes.