Is "Year of the Goat/Ram/Sheep" due to the Chinese language? I've heard that the current lunar year (for most of 2015) is sometimes called in English the Year of the Goat, Year of the Ram, or Year of the Sheep.

I've also heard that the reason for the different translations is that the hanzi for the year is "羊", which can cover all three options. Is this true?

Also, is the term "羊" ambiguous, or is it merely unambiguously referring to  a larger-scale taxon than a single species?
The Chinese 羊 is more an equivalent to the Caprinae subfamily than to a single species inside this subfamily, to which both the sheep and the goats belong.