The European mouflon (Ovis aries musimon) is a feral subspecies of the primitive domestic sheep. It was originally found only on the Mediterranean islands of Corsica and Sardinia, but has since been introduced into many other regions of Europe. It is not to be confused with Ovis gmelini, also called the mouflon, which is found in Western Asia and is also ancestral to modern domestic sheep.
Description
Male mouflon are known as rams and the females as ewes. The young animals are known as lambs.
Appearance
European mouflon have a body length of up to 120 cm, a shoulder height of 90 cm, a weight of 25 to 40 kg for ewes, 35 to 55 kg for the ram. The European mouflon has a smooth hairy coat, the rams are fox red-brown in the summer, usually with a whitish saddle patch, the ewes are brownish. Both sexes are darker in winter. The rams have helix-shaped horns up to 80 cm long; females have no horns on Sardinia, but on Corsica they have smaller horns that are slightly curved towards the rear.
Senses
As an animal whose ancestors used to live in open terrain above the tree line, the eyesight of the mouflon is well developed. Its laterally-located eyes allow the mouflon to scan a wide arc without turning its head. In older rams, the field of view may be restricted by the position of the horn tip. As a result, rams begin to wear down these horns. Their binocular vision is limited to a relatively small facial arc of 60 percent; only in this area can they see any depth of field; in the rest of their visual arc, mouflon can mainly just perceive movement. If mouflon are disturbed by a movement in their lateral field of vision, they turn their head toward the object, thereby locating it within the depth of the landscape. Only then do they try to gain additional information by testing the wind and their sense of hearing, in order to assess the level of danger posed by the disturbance. People may be seen at distances of up to 1,000 metres. Their sense of sight also plays a significant role in the cohesion of the herd. Mouflon who have lost their connection to their herd, search for it by rapidly running back and forth. Only then do they use their smell to follow the herd. Hearing plays a role in the maintenance of the social relationship between the members of the herd.
Vocalisations
The vocal repertoire of the mouflon is extensive and can be divided into contact and warning calls and wailing, as well as the mating calls of the rutting ram. Just a few minutes after the birth of a lamb, the ewe utters a short, sombre, bleating noise, to which the lamb replies, also bleating. In the herd, the sheep call for their lambs using a long drawn-out bleating. Lambs who are looking for their mothers bleat loudly, almost blaring. Wailing is heard from the lambs when they are attacked by an enemy or are severely injured. No wailing sound is made by adult mouflon.
When alarmed, mouflon emit a hiss through their nostrils. Often, the warning call is preceded by a nervous stomping of the front feet. The warning call is quiet when a mouflon is only slightly disturbed, but becomes much louder as danger threatens. A herd whose leader makes this sound, flees immediately. If the sound is made by another animal in the herd, the rest begin to take defensive action, but continue to wait for the reaction of the leader.
Rams make a rattling and snarling sound when chasing rutting ewes. The clashing of horns is one of the most familiar sounds of the mouflon. It is most common during the rutting season, but the rams fight each other all year round.
Range
Originally, European mouflon lived in open, mountainous terrain on stony, dry soils. Today, in Central Europe, they live in deciduous and mixed forests, both on the lowlands and on the uplands and highlands such as the Central Uplands of Germany, but still preferring dry and stony soils. In unfavourable, humid soil conditions, it is easy for bowel diseases and foot rot to occur, which can be fatal.
Predators
Because their escape behaviour is adapted to high mountain areas, European mouflon can only survive on lowland areas in the absence of natural predators. Thus the mouflon population in the recently settled wolf regions of Lusatia was wiped out within a short period of time, while populations of wild boar and the main prey of wolves, deer, were barely affected. Whether this observation will apply in other areas, will only be possible to verify as wolves expand their territory in Central Europe.
The reintroduction of Eurasian lynx into the Harz Mountains of Germany, in combination with hard winters, has also led to a decline in the mouflon population there.