European Mouflon - North America Introduced | Online Record Book Preview

Ovis gmelini musimon

Muflon, Musmon (Sp), Mufflon (G), Mouflon (F).

DESCRIPTION (male) Shoulder height 26-30 inches (66-76 cm). Weight 70-100 pounds (32-45 kg).

One of the world's smallest wild sheep, resembling a slim domestic sheep except that it has a normal coat of hair, any wool being concealed beneath it. Upper parts are reddish-brown with a pale (almost white) saddle patch in the winter coat. Underparts, rump, lower legs and muzzle are white. There is a dark neck ruff, but no bib. The male's horns usually grow in a tight circle, with the tips turned inward toward the face and broomed back to about a three-quarter curl. In a purebred European mouflon, the tip-to-tip spread should not be the widest spread. Females are a little smaller than males and usually do not have horns.

DISTRIBUTION Free-ranging in Hawaii and some parts of Texas. Also on private properties, mainly in Texas but also in Mexico, Colorado and elsewhere.

REMARKS Mouflons may have been released in the wild by ranchers in California and New Mexico many years ago, but details are lacking. We know they were introduced on the King Ranch in southern Texas during the late 1930s and early 1940s, and subsequently on many other properties in Texas. Purebred mouflons were introduced on the island of Lanai, Hawaii, in 1954. Both purebreds and hybrids were released during 1962-1966 on the island of Hawaii, where they have crossed with feral domestic sheep. A Texas game department report in 1974 stated, "Extensive crossbreeding among mouflon, Barbados and domestic sheep has virtually removed the recognizable small herds of purebred animals." Temple (1976) stated that most "mouflon sheep" killed by hunters were crossbred with Barbados or domestic sheep. Because of such hybridization, which occurs worldwide, there is probably no such thing anywhere as a pure mouflon. In many places, the stockman's rule for determining purebreds is 7/8ths for males and 15/16ths for females; however, as it is impractical to trace the ancestry of Record Book entries, we have adopted instead the following morphological criteria:

1. Maximum body weight 110 pounds (50 kg).


2. Maximum tail length three inches (7.6 cm).


3. Maximum mane length eight inches (20.3 cm).


4. White belly. White saddle patch in winter coat.


5. Tip-to-tip spread of horns may not be the widest spread. (Special cases may be considered by the committee.)
   

HYBRIDIZATION Please see descriptive text above.