THE BARBARY SHEEP 
OVIS LERVIA 
T HE audad, arui, or Barbary sheep, is another animal of 
palcearctic affinities whose range extends to the African or 
^Ethiopian region. Its headquarters are the mountains which 
overlook the Mediterranean from Morocco to Algeria, but it is 
also found amongst isolated, arid, rocky hills in Egypt and the 
Sudan, almost as far south as Khartum. In height the Barbary 
sheep stands nearly forty inches at the shoulder, and is a stoutly built, 
heavy animal. The males, and to a lesser extent the females, are adorned 
with a growth of long hair which hangs from the throat and extends to 
the chest and forelegs. The colour of the Barbary sheep in both sexes and 
at all ages and seasons is a uniform light sandy yellow, which accords 
exactly with the tints of the parched surroundings amongst which it 
lives. The heavy horns curve backwards, and in the males have been 
known to attain a length of thirty-three inches, though anything over 
twenty-five inches is uncommon. In the females the horns are of the same 
shape as are those of the males, and relatively larger than in any other 
species of wild sheep. These horns are in young and middle-aged animals 
well marked with transverse ridges, which, however, in old age are often 
worn nearly smooth. The audad is said by the Arabs to be able to live 
without drinking for several days at a time. It never appears to congregate 
in large flocks, but lives in small family parties. Though very active on 
broken, rocky ground, the Barbary sheep cannot be very fleet if driven 
into level country, as Mr Gilbert Blaine ran down and captured one on 
camelback, which he and his men had forced to take to the open from 
some isolated rocky ridges in the province of Dongola, far to the west of 
the Nile. This specimen, which I saw two years ago in the Zoological 
Gardens near Cairo, was carried safely on the back of a camel many days’ 
journey to Dongola, on the Nile. All sportsmen who have hunted the audad 
have found it very wary and difficult to stalk, and very difficult to see when 
lying resting in the shade of rocks, the colour of which closely resembles 
that of its own coat. It is very nocturnal in its habits, only moving about and 
feeding after dark, and in the cool of the morning and evening. Though a 
strong, tough beast, like all wild sheep, the audad can be easily killed by 
any of the many small-bore, high-velocity rifles now on the market. 
228 
