558 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Cyprian Mouflon; Cyprian Wild Sheep; Cyprian Red Sheep. 

 Moufloii de Cypre (Fr.) 



Ovis OPHION OPHION Blyth 



[Ovis Musimon] var. orientalis Brandt and Ratzeburg, Getreue Darstellung 

 und Beschreibung der Thiere, vol. 1, p. 54, 1827. (Cyprus. 1 ) (Preoccupied 

 by Ovis orientalis S. G. Gmelin (1774).) 



Ovis Ophion Blyth, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1840, p. 73, 1841. (Cyprus.) 



SYNONYM: Ovis cyprius Blasius (1857). 



FIGS.: Brandt and Ratzeburg, 1829, pi. 9, figs. 1, A; Biddulph, 1885, pi. 58, 

 and p. 594, figs. 1, 2; Lydekker, 1898c, p. 164, fig. 31 ; Lydekker, 1901, p. 138, 

 fig. 30; Lydekker, 1913a, pi. 11, fig. 2, pi. 19, fig. 2; Nasonov, 1923, pi. 4, 

 fig. 1. 



In 1936 the numbers of the Cyprian Mouflon were said to be re- 

 duced to 25 or 30 individuals. This reduction, in connection with 

 the restricted insular range of the animal, indicates that its status 

 has become distinctly precarious. 



Horns of male yellowish brown, three-sided, curved at first up- 

 ward and outward, then downward and inward ; longer hairs varying 

 from white to reddish yellow or blackish brown; eye region, stripe 

 near the nose, muzzle, chin, ears, and a spot on throat brownish 

 white; stripe on breast, one along flanks, and one along front of 

 thigh blackish brown; under parts and inner side of limbs white, 

 partly mixed with brown. Height at shoulder, about 26 inches. 

 (Brandt and Ratzeburg, 1829, pp. 54-55.) Biddulph (1885, pp. 595- 

 596) states that the general color above is rufous-fawn, with an 

 indistinct saddle-patch on the ribs formed by a few scattered white 

 hairs; front of forelegs above the knees blackish; horns 23-24 

 inches along fronto-nuchal edge; the fronto-orbital edge almost 

 completely rounded off. The females are hornless (Nasonov, 1923, 

 p. 21). 



Biddulph (1885, pp. 593-595) writes of this sheep: 



The Cyprian Mouflon is not found in all parts of the island, but is confined 

 to the Troodos mountains in the western central portion, where the highest 

 point rises to 6590 feet above the sea-level. Here the Wild Sheep have a 

 considerable area of pine-clad mountain to wander over, disturbed only by 

 occasional wood-cutters and peasants herding goats and sheep. At the time 

 of the first occupation in 1878 it was supposed that the Wild Sheep had been 

 exterminated with the exception of a single flock of twenty-five members, 

 and a check was placed on their slaughter. Since then their numbers have 

 increased and it may be hoped that under modified restrictions Mouflon- 

 stalking in Troodos may long continue to be one of the sports of Cyprus. 



Bate (1904, p. 348) says: 



The Moufflon ... is still found in the forests of the western part of the 

 Troodos Range, this being the wildest and least inhabited district in ^the 



i Although the authors include Persia in the range, they state that a Cyprian 

 specimen formed the basis of their description. 



