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 over 1,000 metres, unlike deer which rely mainly on smell. Despite their small size and weight, mouflon are very hard to kill and have to be hunted with weapons of sufficiently high calibre in order to ensure successful first-time kills. In Germany the hunting of mouflon is governed by hunting rights in accordance with the Federal Hunting Act. In the 2015/16 hunting season the bag in Germany amounted to 8,000 mouflon (in 2010/11 there were 7,270), of which 3,000 were shot in Rhineland-Palatinate and Thuringia alone, 38% of the total cull. The numbers shot, unlike other huntable wild animals, have