European mouflon Harzgerode in 1906, followed by further releases in the Taunus and the Solling. In all cases, the mouflon favoured level or low-lying plains with forest cover and not, as expected, rocky, mountainous areas. Gradually they were mixed with varieties of domestic sheep, especially crossbreeding with the racka. After the European mouflon population declined during the First World War, in the German Reich alone about 2,500 were counted in 1938. After a further decline during the Second World War, the number of European mouflon worldwide in 1954 was only about 4,500. After that, numbers recovered due to careful management and grew
European mouflon to about 20,000 in 1967. At that time there were 7,000 in Germany, over 2,000 in Austria, and 2,000 in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. In the Bavarian Forest, mouflon were naturalised from 1971 to 1974 on the southern side of the forest, with the aid of the Wittelsbach Compensation Fund. At times, the population grew to almost 100 animals. By early 2008, it fell again due to tourism, hunting and the newly released lynx leaving just over 30 mouflon in the area of the Geisskopf. In January 1969 in Luxembourg, several mouflon from the Grand Ducal park at Imbringen in the