Mouflon scientific literature as separate species, "Ovis musimon" and "Ovis orientalis". The mouflons are also sometimes treated as a subspecies of the domestic sheep, "Ovis aries", named with the same subspecific epithet as above: "O. a. musimon", "O. a. ophion", etc. Based on comparison of mitochondrial cytochrome b gene sequences, three groups of sheep ("Ovis") have been identified: Pachyceriforms of Siberia (snow sheep) and North America (bighorn and Dall sheep), Argaliforms (argali) of Central Asia, and Moufloniforms (urial, mouflon, and domestic sheep) of Eurasia. However, a comparison of the mitochondrial DNA control region (CR) found that two subspecies of urial, "Ovis
European mouflon most common during the rutting season, but the rams fight each other all year round. Originally, European mouflon lived in open, mountainous terrain on stony, dry soils. Today, in Central Europe, they live in deciduous and mixed forests, both on the lowlands and on the uplands and highlands such as the Central Uplands of Germany, but still preferring dry and stony soils. In unfavourable, humid soil conditions, it is easy for bowel diseases and foot rot to occur, which can be fatal. Because their escape behaviour is adapted to high mountain areas, European mouflon can only survive on lowland areas