European Mouflon - South America | 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). Females are a little smaller.

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 dark neck ruff but no bib. The 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 sometimes grow small horns, but usually are hornless.

DISTRIBUTION Private ranches in Osorno province of Chile and Neuquén province of Argentina.

REMARKS Because of the possibility of hybridization with domestic sheep, the same criteria for purebred European mouflons apply here as in North America:

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


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


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


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


5. White belly.


6. White saddle patch in winter coat.


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

The mouflons whose measurements are listed here are believed to be purebred.