Mouflon

European mouflon (Ovis orientalis musimon )

As a mouflon (Ovis orientalis orientalis group) are summarized several subspecies of the wild sheep. For the genus of the word " mouflon " can be found in dictionaries, both the specification neuter, thus " mouflon ", as well as masculine, " the mouflon ". In a narrower sense, so a single subspecies is known, the European mouflon. It is disputed whether the mouflon is a wild sheep ancestor of the domestic sheep or a descendant of feral sheep and pristine house.

Features

Mouflon have a head-body length of 130 cm and a body height of 90 centimeters. Aries usually weigh 50 kg, 35 kg, however, the sheep.

Habitat

The habitat of the wild sheep are mountainous landscapes. This form females with one, sometimes two lambs herds of up to a hundred animals, while the goats come only during the mating season to the herds. In their naturalization areas, they are distinguished, however, especially by the fact that they mainly reside in the forest. Forest Near agricultural areas are visited only during certain hours and seasons. Both in the original habitat and in the regions where wild sheep were naturalized, it comes to seasonal vertical migrations.

Mouflon are site- faithful animals; the mother of family associations occupy partly through generations traditional territories. The exact knowledge of their respective habitat is an essential part of their predator avoidance strategies. Approaching wolves, which are among the most important predators of the mouflon, the mother with the lamb tries to klippiges terrain. Thither the wolf can not follow her into the rule. The lambs are also threatened by eagles and ewes with their lambs looking cover rich terrain when these show up in the sky. Mouflon rarely colonize new territories.

Mouflon orientate their action space at prominent terrain features, movement done by running one behind the other in a long row. In Mufflonterritorien therefore clearly visible change can be identified. It is typical of their behavior that they use terrain elevations to get an overview.

Dissemination

Today, the mouflon in the Caucasus, Anatolia, northern Iraq, and northwestern Iran is widespread. Once submitted their range further over the Crimea and the Balkans to the Carpathians. In these areas, however, it is already in the Bronze Age even disappeared even earlier (about 3000 years ago), or. In addition, mouflon live in Elba, Cyprus, Corsica and Sardinia; controversial, however, whether this is to wild sheep or descendants and pristine domestic sheep. In many parts of Europe, the mouflon has been reintroduced recently as game.

Subspecies

Grubb (2005) distinguishes six subspecies of mouflon:

• European mouflon (Ovis orientalis musimon Pallas, 1811): Around the fifth millennium BC along the European mouflon to Corsica and Sardinia, it was introduced in almost all of Europe.
• Cyprus mouflon (Ovis orientalis ophion Blyth, 1841): The Cyprus mouflon was nearly extirpated during the 20th century, but in the meantime could be brought by protective measures to a population of 2000. According to estimates from 1997, the stock has fallen due to disease in 1200, which is why the subspecies is endangered.
• Armenian mouflon (Ovis orientalis orientalis Gmelin, 1774): South Caucasus in Armenia and Nakhichevan, north-western Iran and southern and eastern parts of Asia Minor. The shoulder height is 88 to 94 cm, the horns are negative helically bent back, the horn length is up to 67 cm, the circumference of the horn is located at the base of 22 to 27 cm. Females are partially polled. The fur color varies between rust and cinnamon, is found in the males usually a bright edge spot of variable size on the sides. Chest and underside are characterized by elongated, dark hair, which, however, do not reach the throat. The nomenclatural status of orientalis is controversial and so the younger synonym is often used gmelinii. Sometimes the shape of the Anatolian mouflon, about 2,000 of the animals live in a conservation area of the south by Turkey in Konya, as a distinct subspecies (O. o anatolica ) is separated from the Armenian mouflon.
• Esfahan mouflon (Ovis orientalis isphahanica Nasonov, 1910): Zagros Mountains in Iran.
• Laristan mouflon (Ovis orientalis laristanica Nasonov, 1909): The Laristan mouflon is small. Full-grown bucks barely reach more than 75 pounds of body weight. The distribution area is limited to a few reserves near the city of Lar in southern Iran. The habitat are hot desert areas.
• Domestic sheep (Ovis orientalis aries Linnaeus, 1758).

Relationship to man

Years ago, an estimated 10,000 of the bighorn sheep was domesticated. Since there is domestic sheep. The most probable point of first domestication is considered to Anatolia.

The mouflon as an emblem

The mouflon is on the island of Cyprus is of great importance. It was found that both the mouflon cent coins of the old currency Cyprus pound as well as on the new 1 -, 2 - and 5- cent coins of the euro.

The national airline of Cyprus, Cyprus Airways, since the 1960s, wearing a winged mouflon as a logo on the tails of their machines.