Mouflon

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Male Cyprus mouflon (Ovis gmelini ophion)
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Scientific classification Edit this classification
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Binomial name
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Blyth, 1841
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Range of the Ovis gmelini
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The mouflon or moufflon[2][3] (Ovis gmelini) is a wild sheep native to Cyprus, two separate parts of Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Iran.[1][4]It is also found in parts of Europe. It is thought to be the ancestor of all modern domestic sheep breeds.[5][6]

Taxonomy

Ovis gmelini was the scientific name proposed by Edward Blyth in 1841 for wild sheep in the Middle East.[7] In the 19th and 20th centuries, several wild sheep were described that are considered mouflon subspecies today:[8]

  • Ovis ophion by Blyth in 1841 for wild sheep in Cyprus;[7]
  • Ovis laristanica by Nikolai Nasonov in 1909 for wild sheep in Lar in southern Iran;[9]
  • Ovis orientalis isphahanica by Nasonov in 1910 for wild sheep in the Zagros Mountains.[10]

Subspecies

Five mouflon subspecies are distinguished by MSW3[11], from west to east:

  • Anatolian mouflon, O. g. anatolica (Arıhan, 2000), also called ceren once almost extinct population of mouflon that is slowly coming back. Core population lives in the region of Konya, and has been reintroduced to Ankara, Eskişehir, Afyonkarahisar, Karaman, Kahramanmaraş and Kırşehir in its former range.[12] Total population is about 800.[13]
  • Cyprus mouflon, O. g. ophion (Blyth, 1841): also called agrino (from the Greek Script error: No such module "Lang".); nearly driven to extinction during the 20th century. In 1997, about 1,200 individuals were counted. The television show Born to Explore with Richard Wiese reported 3,000 individuals on Cyprus.
  • Armenian mouflon (Armenian red sheep), O. g. gmelini (Blyth, 1851): nominate subspecies; native to easternmost Turkey, northwestern Iran, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. It has been introduced to Texas in the U.S.
  • Esfahan mouflon, O. g. isphahanica (Nasonov, 1910): Zagros Mountains, Iran.
  • Laristan mouflon, O. g. laristanica (Nasonov, 1909): a small subspecies, its range is restricted to some desert reserves near Lar in southern Iran.

The European mouflon was once thought to be a subspecies of the mouflon, but is now considered to be a feral descendant of the domestic sheep (Ovis aries), as Ovis aries musimon.[14]

Relation to other sheep

Based on comparison of mitochondrial cytochrome b gene sequences, three groups of sheep (Ovis) have been identified: Pachyceriforms of Siberia (snow sheep) and North America (bighorn and Dall sheep), Argaliforms (argali) of Central Asia, and Moufloniforms (urial, mouflon, and domestic sheep) of Eurasia.[15] However, a comparison of the mitochondrial DNA control region (CR) found that two subspecies of urial, Ovis vignei (or orientalis) arkal and O. v./o. bochariensis, grouped with two different clades of argali (Ovis ammon).[6]

The ancestral sheep is presumed to have had 60 chromosomes, as in goats (Capra). Mouflon and domestic sheep have 54 chromosomes, with three pairs (1+3, 2+8, 5+11) of ancestral acrocentric chromosomes joined to form bi-armed chromosomes. This is in contrast to the argali and urial, which have 56 and 58 chromosomes respectively. If the urial is as closely related to the mouflons as mitochondrial DNA indicates, then two chromosomes would need to have split during its evolution away from the mouflon (sub)species.[15]

Description

File:Ovis musimon 04.jpg
Mouflon female

Mouflon have reddish to dark brown, short-haired coats with dark back stripes and black ventral areas and light-colored saddle patches. The males are horned; some females are horned, while others are polled. The horns of mature rams are curved almost one full revolution (up to 85 cm). Mouflon have shoulder heights of around 0.9 m and body weights of 50 kg (males) and 35 kg (females).[16]

Distribution and habitat

During the late Pleistocene mouflon ranged from central Turkey to northern Syria northern Iraq, up to Armenia, Azerbaijan and western Iran, roughly corresponding to the Fertile Crescent.[17]

Their typical habitat is gently rolling hills in the steppe-forest ecotone.[18]

Behaviour and ecology

Reproduction

Mouflon rams have a strict dominance hierarchy. Before mating season or "rut", which is from late autumn to early winter, rams try to create a dominance hierarchy to determine access to ewes (female mouflon) for mating. Mouflon rams fight one another to obtain dominance and win an opportunity to mate with females. Mouflons reach sexual maturity at the age of two to four years. Young rams need to obtain dominance before they get a chance to mate, which takes another three years. Mouflon ewes also go through a similar hierarchy process in terms of social status in the first two years, but can breed even at low status. Pregnancy in females lasts five months, in which they produce one to two offspring.[citation needed]

A mouflon was cloned successfully in early 2001, and lived at least seven months, making it the first clone of an endangered mammal to survive beyond infancy.[19][20][21] This demonstrated that a common species (in this case, a domestic sheep) can successfully become a surrogate for the birth of an exotic animal such as the mouflon. If cloning of the mouflon can proceed successfully, it has the potential to reduce strain on the number of living specimens.

Conservation

The mouflon is protected in Armenia and Azerbaijan. In Turkey and Iran, hunting is only allowed with a special license. The population in Cyprus is listed as a strictly protected species in the Habitats Directive of the European Union and has been listed in CITES Appendix I since November 2019.[1]

In culture

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The male mouflon is called Mufro in Corsica, and the female Mufra; the French naturalist Buffon (1707–1788) rendered this in French as Script error: No such module "Lang".. In Sardinia, the male is called Murvoni, and the female Murva, though it is not unusual to hear the peasants style both indiscriminately Mufion, which is a palpable corruption of the Greek Ophion.[22]

See also

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Template:Cite iucn
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."mouflon". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved 27 March 2026.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."mouflon". Collins English Dictionary. Retrieved 27 March 2026.
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Turkish mouflon". users.metu.edu.tr. Retrieved 2026-03-17.
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Hiendleder, S.; Kaupe, B.; Wassmuth, R.; Janke, A. (2002). "Molecular analysis of wild and domestic sheep questions current nomenclature and provides evidence for domestication from two different subspecies". Proceedings: Biological Sciences. 269 (1494): 893–904. Bibcode:2002PBioS.269..893H. doi:10.1098/rspb.2002.1975. PMC 1690972. PMID 12028771.
  6. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Hiendleder, S.; Mainz, K.; Plante, Y.; Lewalski, H. (1998). "Analysis of mitochondrial DNA indicates that domestic sheep are derived from two different ancestral maternal sources: No evidence for contributions from urial and argali sheep". Journal of Heredity. 89 (2): 113–120. doi:10.1093/jhered/89.2.113. PMID 9542158.
  7. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Blyth, E. (1841). "An Amended List of the Species of the Genus Ovis". The Annals and Magazine of Natural History; Zoology, Botany, and Geology. 7 (44): 248–261.
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.IUCN/SSC Caprinae Specialist Group (2000). Workshop on Caprinae taxonomy, 8–10 May 2000. Ankara, Turkey: IUCN.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Nasonov, N.V. (1909). "Note préliminaire sur une nouvelle espèce de Mouton sauvage, Ovis laristanica, de la Persie méridionale" (PDF). Извѣстія Императорской Академіи Наукъ. 3 (18): 1179–1180.
  10. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Nasonov, N.V. (1910). "О дикомъ восточномъ баранҍ С. Гмелина (Ovis orientalis Pall.)" [About the wild eastern sheep C. gmelina (Ovis orientalis Pall.)] (PDF). Извѣстія Императорской Академіи Наукъ (in русский). 4 (9): 681–710.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Grubb, P. (2005). "Species Ovis gmelini". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 637–722. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."ANADOLU YABAN KOYUNLARI YENİ YAŞAM ALANLARINDA..." Retrieved 2026-03-17.
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Koruma altındaki Anadolu yaban koyunlarının sayısı artıyor - Genel - Tarım Orman Ekranı. Retrieved 2026-03-17 – via www.tarimtv.gov.tr.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Gentry, A.; Clutton-Brock, J. & Groves, C. P. (2004). "The naming of wild animal species and their domestic derivatives". Journal of Archaeological Science. 31 (5): 645–651. Bibcode:2004JArSc..31..645G. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2003.10.006.
  15. ^ a b Bunch, Wu, Zhang, Wang (2005). "Phylogenetic analysis of the snow sheep (Ovis nivicola) and closely related taxa", Journal of Heredity, 97 (1) 21–30. [1]
  16. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.MacDonald, D.; Barret, P. (1993). Mammals of Britain & Europe. Vol. 1. London: HarperCollins. pp. 220–221. ISBN 978-0-00-219779-3.
  17. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Yeomans, Lisa; Martin, Louise; Richter, Tobias (August 2017). "Expansion of the known distribution of Asiatic mouflon (Ovis orientalis) in the Late Pleistocene of the Southern Levant". Royal Society Open Science. 4 (8) 170409. Bibcode:2017RSOS....470409Y. doi:10.1098/rsos.170409. ISSN 2054-5703. PMC 5579105. PMID 28878989.
  18. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Turkish mouflon". users.metu.edu.tr. Retrieved 2026-03-17.
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Loi, P.; Ptak, G.; Barboni, B.; Fulka Jr, J.; Cappai, P.; Clinton, M. (2001). "Genetic rescue of an endangered mammal by cross-species nuclear transfer using post-mortem somatic cells". Nature Biotechnology. 19 (10): 962–964. Bibcode:2001NatBi..19..962L. doi:10.1038/nbt1001-962. PMID 11581663. S2CID 10633589.
  20. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Trivedi, B. P. (2001). "Scientists Clone First Endangered Species: a Wild Sheep". National Geographic Today. Archived from the original on November 2, 2001. Retrieved February 21, 2006.
  21. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Winstead, E. (2001). "Endangered wild sheep clone reported to be healthy". Genome News Network. Retrieved April 10, 2007.
  22. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Blyth, E.; Owen, R. (1840). "On the species of the genus Ovis". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 8: 62–79.

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