Hunting for any mountain ungulates and for hollow-horned ones is a special type of hunting that requires physical endurance and fortitude from a person. Not every hunter meets such requirements and therefore some people doubt: is it worth to take up such a case at all? For those who are not confident in themselves, but want to try, I can advise to start with the simplest hunting for a European mouflon.
The fact is that this animal can be found not only in the mountains but in the forests and even steppe regions of Europe, like in Germany, where I have been living in the north of Baden-Württemberg for 26 years.
Mouflons are not endemic to continental Europe; they were brought there from the islands of the Mediterranean. It happened so long ago that it is difficult to consider these sheep "non-native". The first documented mention of mouflon on the European mainland was found in... the construction documentation of the buildings of the Palace of Emperor Maximilian II in Vienna. These are papers from 1566! Later, in 1729, Prince Eugene of Savoy transported several sheep from Sardinia to a hunting reserve near the Belvedere in Vienna. In 1736, the mouflons were taken to the Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna and about 100 years later to the imperial hunting grounds in Leinz. The next step was the relocation of these sheep to other lands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1858 they were relocated to Bohemia (today's Czech Republic), in 1882 mouflons began to inhabit the areas of Nitra, Gomor and Upper Tatras, as well as Hungary. The first time, two dozen mouflons were brought in Germany in 1905 to the Harz and in 1912 to the Schaffgott district. These animals were settled in Poland, Bulgaria, Ukraine and other European countries, mainly in the first half of the twentieth century. Today mouflons can be found in the form of fragmented populations throughout Europe with a total population exceeding 100,000 individuals. It is easier to list the countries in which they do not exist, than vice versa.
If we talk about the taxonomy of mouflons, then there are only "maybe" and "not excluded". If we take into account that experts also include Asian urials to mouflons, then it is necessary to combine the most anatomically diverse rams into a group of mouflon-like ones. In any case, these are the smallest and least massive Ovis representatives in the world. I will name European mouflons Ovis aries musimon Pallas, 1811 following the decision of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature in 2003, in order not to get confused in contradictory nomenclature and systematics. Although, they are probably hybrids with domestic sheep unlike the endemics of Corsica and Sardinia.
Three characteristic features of Ovis representatives – body size, coat color, as well as the size and shape of horns in introduced European mouflons vary significantly depending on the habitat of the population. The length of the trunk of males (without a tail) can range from 82 to 128 cm; height at the withers – from 78 to 92 cm; weight range – from 33 to 58 kg. Females are smaller and lighter in all these parameters by 20-30 percent.
The coat of adult males is impressively bright both in summer and winter. The short and smooth coat in summer is mainly light to reddish-brown in color darker on top. The saddle-shaped spot of milky white color is somewhat blurred. The beard is inconspicuous and rather dark. The thick winter wool of long and soft wool is much darker, up to almost black and forms a heavy beard in the front of the neck. The white saddle-shaped spot looks brightly contrasting. Males are also notable for their expressive mask: white wool around the muzzle and gray-white glasses around the eyes.
Females have to put up with a much less flashy appearance.
Moufflon-like sheep are the only ones whose horns do not form a complete spiral. Moreover, supracervical horns generally grow back along the neck in some populations and subspecies. The horns of the European mouflon are elegant and they do not reach slightly a full turn in old males.
The European mouflon has a high degree of adaptation to various habitats and survives well in various climatic conditions unlike most sheep. You can found it both on the plain, in regions with intensive agriculture (except avoids wetlands and areas with high snow cover for a long time), and on high mountain ranges.
Mouflons can cause significant damage to forestry and agricultural crops, so the number of populations should be strictly controlled. And it's just in good agreement with the interests of hunters.
Eight-year-old males are considered as minimally acceptable for trophy hunting. The maximum parameters of the trophy are a very conditional category. The fact is that in response to demand, some farms are engaged in the "production of valuable trophies".
They carry out hybridization with domestic sheep for this purpose. As shown by some experts, the super-chord horns of mouflons from European hunting grounds do not have the typical homonymous structure of the horns of Corsican endemics. It's known that the hybridization of mouflons for the sake of improving the quality of the trophy in Europe began at the very beginning of the twentieth century. It is documented that in Hernstein (Austria), mouflons were crossed with breeds of Wallachian sheep (Ovis strepsiceros) with a heteronymous spiral of horns. In Germany, the grey domestic sheep (an ancient breed of domestic sheep) was used for such hybridization.
There are significant differences in the morphometry of the horns of all populations of European mouflons due to these circumstances. But the homonymous form inherited from endemic Corsican and Sardinian populations is considered classical. These are tapering or parallel horns with a relatively narrow distance between the tips compared to the largest distance between them. The second form is heteronymous – with diverging horns, the distance between the outward-pointing tips is equal to the widest distance. And the third configuration that indicates active hybridization: the horns are rounded, thin, usually dark brown with a lighter base, and at the same time the annual rings on the horns are clearly visible.
As a rule, the length of the horns in adult males is 71-81 cm with a base circumference from 18 to 24 cm; and horns from 90 to 100 cm or more in length, with a base from 27 to 29 cm or more, are found only in favorable habitats.
It is worth to note that there are separate populations where a large proportion of females also have horns. It is hardly advisable to talk about the peculiarities of the biology of the European mouflon, which could be of interest to a hunter – it is very similar not only sheep but to ibex too. But it makes sense to mention that this animal is active both during the day and at night, and about two more points – about vigilance and rut time. The first one is important, because mouflon has sharp eyesight, the animal is able to notice the movement of the hunter from a distance of up to 1000 meters. The mouflon makes a whistling sound that alarms other animals, or taps its front hooves if it senses danger. As for the rutting season, it begins in mid-October, and it's easier to detect a trophy single male at that time, since they join to the herd with females and young.
The number of mouflons in Germany is steadily growing. Mouflon is found in the wild for the most part, although there are many of them in semi-voluntary conditions of detention. The animal is distributed more or less evenly throughout the country, with the exception of the eastern part, where its concentration is high. The hunters got 6888 individuals n the 2008/2009 season, then this figure has increased to 8,157 heads by 2020/2021.
It is recommended to hunt mouflons with a carbine of caliber 7 and higher, but no more than 9.3. It can take weeks of searching to get a record trophy. This is how one of the obsessed trophy colleagues describes it: "It was in mid-December, when I walked and saw a ram with huge horns, he was standing on the edge of a clearing. And I really regretted that I was just walking, without a weapon. But I decided not only to visit that clearing regularly, but also to arrange a trap there. I spent every morning and evening in that clearing for ten days and saw a herd of mouflons several times. Were there trophy size males, you can ask me. Yes, they were. But not the one I was waiting. It came out with the herd on the eleventh day only. So I became the owner of the coveted trophy, the size of which amazed the local hunters.”
The cost of hunting trophy European mouflon in Germany for "residents" varies between 1500-2000 euros and is held from August to March. A one-time license may be optimal for most foreign hunters, which is valid for 14 consecutive days. However, hunting there can hardly be attractive for foreigners, since there is strict legislation, including requiring confirmation of annual training shooting at moving targets, or even passing an exam within the framework of the Federal Law on Hunting. There are exceptions for hunters from some EU countries at the same time.
Less than a dozen countries can be considered suitable for hunting these animals if we do not mention the tiny populations of mouflons in tens or hundreds of individuals in Denmark, Belgium and other countries, as well as Italy, Poland or Portugal, where no more than 1,000 individuals are harvested per year.
Austria is on the top! I travel there with great pleasure. The people there are really good-natured, sociable, always ready to help. Perhaps the harsh climate of the Alps makes them so. It's known, the country's budget is replenished largely by foreign tourists, and hunting trips are just from this circle.
There are mouflons living in a natural environment, and aviaries. There is no exact information about the number of the population (and it's typical for most European countries), although the expert population is estimated at 7.5-8 thousand individuals. The annual getting is about 1,700 mouflons.
The largest herds of mouflon live in Lower Austria.
In the Czech Republic, initially mouflons were bred only in aviaries, but now they are widespread in lowlands with deciduous forests and agricultural land. The hunters get approximately 6,500 individuals every year.
The first release of mouflons into the wild occurred in France in 1949, some animals were from Corsica and Sardinia but many populations were of mixed origin, as cases of crossing with domestic sheep became known. There are only three groups (one of them aviary) that descended from the purebred Corsican Mouflon. The approximate total number of 11,000 mouflons in France is distributed over almost 70 populations. The most numerous of them is found in the extraordinarily beautiful mountains of the Central Massif and amounts to more than 2500 individuals. In 1967, a hunting quota was introduced. The average annual hunting is approximately 2000 individuals. The attractive thing is that you can also hunt chamois and red deer there.
Mouflons began to be introduced into Hungary more than 100 years ago, mainly in mountainous regions. The estimated population of mouflons in 2005 was 8288 individuals, and 2781 heads were hunted in the same year, of which 448 trophies went to the collections of foreign hunters. Approximately 25% of the total number of mouflons live in aviaries. Hungarian rams are distinguished by the most outstanding trophies: males with a horn length of 85-90 cm are found regularly, but hunters have got specimens with horns longer than 95 cm.
Mouflons came to Slovakia from various European countries. Most of the populations are dwelled in the west of the country, and the total number exceeds 8000 individuals and is considered excessive, that's why zoologists recommend a significant reduction. Therefore, the annual hunting harvesting reaches 2000 individuals. Hunting is held here from October 1 to January 31.
As an option, you can think about hunting in Croatia. There are not very many mouflons, but environmentalists recommend to reduce the livestock seriously, since the sheep causes great damage to agriculture. The best time for hunting is from the end of September to the beginning of December, but in Croatia you need to be ready to move through quite difficult mountainous terrain. Well, as an option for a Russian hunter – hunting in Ukraine (on the Black Sea island of Jarylgach, near Skadovsk) or in Finland, on islands in the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Bothnia. The population there is small, but you can count on a quota of about 20 heads.
