THE AOUDAD. 
Ovis tragdaphus. 
Plate XXI. 
This conspicuous species of Wild Sheep is found all along the range of the Atlas in North Africa, and extends 
itself, according to Dr. Riippell, throughout Egypt and Nubia, down as far south as the 18th degree of 
latitude, being known by different native names in the countries in which it occurs. It inhabits the 
mountain-ranges, and is generally met with grazing in small families, after the manner of most of its 
brethren of the same genus. 
The Aoudad is now well known in the Zoological Gardens of Europe, both sexes of this Sheep, having 
been frequently obtained from different parts of the north coast of Africa, and young having been produced 
in the Gardens of the Societe Zoologique d’Acclimatation at Paris, of the Societe de Zoologie of Brussels, 
and in other collections of living animals, as well as in our own. 
Mr. Wolf’s sketch represents the fine adult male of the Aoudad, presented to the Society in 1861, by 
Sir J. Gaspard Le Marchant, then Governor of Malta. The female, which in this species of Sheep 
scarcely differs from the male, except in her smaller size, was presented to the Society by Her Majesty the 
Queen, in 1862. The lamb, which was born in April of the same year, is from a different mother. 
The uniform brown colour of the Aoudad, the long mane which clothes its throat and fore-limbs, and 
the want of the lachrymal sinus, renders this species easily recognizable amongst its congeners of the genus Ovis. 
The latter character has led some naturalists to arrange the Aoudad amongst the Goats. This, which is, 
no doubt, erroneous, though such a difference affords good grounds for its location in a separate sub-genus, as 
has been suggested by Mr. Blyth. 
The ‘Aoudad’ is the name by which this Sheep is known among the Arabs of Algeria. Here, we are 
informed by Mr. Tristram, in his interesting work on the “ Great Sahara,” it is “ far from uncommon 
throughout the whole of the mountain districts, whether wooded or bare. The officers of Laghouat frequently 
pursue them, but the chase is attended with no little difficulty, for they betake themselves at once to the 
highest cliffs and rocks, and bound up the most inaccessible precipices.” 
