Moufflon

Ovis ammon musimon

Appearance: the winter dress is darker (chestnut brown) with usually a clear light saddle spot than the summer dress. The female and young animals are more grey, in winter also darker and without saddle spot. Goats carry horns that grow for life and can grow up to 75 cm long. Sheep have only very short horns or are hornless.

Behavior: They are twilight-active (also active during the day in undisturbed surroundings).

Reproduction: Moufflon would be sexually mature with 1.5 years however they only start mating with 3.5 years. The mating season starts in October and lasts til December. Shortly befor weaning of the sheep knocks off her previous lambs and usually gives birth to one lamb which weights about 2 kilo.

Special features: Sense of sight (vision and recognition) particularly well developed.

The European mouflon is also called European wild sheep or mouflon and is the smallest wild sheep subspecies. The Corsican mouflon does not peel the bark, i. e. it doesn’t peel off tree bark to eat it. Hunters crossbreeded the mouflon with Zackel sheep to obtain “better” trophies (curling horns in hunter’s jargon) and a higher weight of game. But the domestic sheep mongrels peel the bark of the trees and bring the moufflon into disrepute.

Steckbrief

Herkunft:

in the Neolithic period Central Europe – today the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, Asia Minor. It was reintroduced to Europe in the 19th century.

Lebensraum:

Cold habitats and deserts

Nahrung:

Plants (including poisonous ones such as spurge, belladonna), herbs, grasses, buds, shoots

Gewicht:

up to 50 kg

Größe:

up to 90 cm

Erreichbares Alter:

up to 15 years

Tierpaten Ehrentafel

  • GED Wohnbau GmbH
  • Family Schreiberhuber, Wolfsbach
  • ‘Carlo’
    Wild Karl, Ramingdorf/Behamberg

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