History of the domestic sheep exact line of descent between domestic sheep and their wild ancestors is unclear. The most common hypothesis states that "Ovis aries" is descended from the Asiatic ("O. orientalis") species of mouflon. A few breeds of sheep, such as the Castlemilk Moorit from Scotland, were formed through crossbreeding with wild European mouflon. The urial ("O. vignei") was once thought to have been a forebear of domestic sheep, as they occasionally interbreed with mouflon in the Iranian part of their range. However, the urial, argali ("O. ammon"), and snow sheep ("O. nivicola") have a different number of chromosomes than other Ovis species,
European mouflon in the absence of natural predators. Thus the mouflon population in the recently settled wolf regions of Lusatia was wiped out within a short period of time, while populations of wild boar and their main prey, deer, were barely affected. Whether this observation will apply in other areas, will only be possible to verify as wolves expand their territory in Central Europe. The resettlement of lynxes in the Harz Mountains, in combination with hard winters, has also led to a decline in the mouflon population. Within the hunting community it was noted that the mouflon which were introduced in 1903