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 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