Ovis aries Linnaeus, 1758 . Syst. Nat., 10th ed., 1:70.

TYPE LOCALITY: Sweden (domesticated stock) .

DISTRIBUTION: S and E Turkey, Armenia, S Azerbaijan, N Iraq, W Iran. Domesticated worldwide; primitive domestic populations (mouflon) feral on Corsica and Sardinia, introduced from there to Europe, Crimea (USSR), USA (incl. Hawaiian Isis), Chile, Kerguelen Isis, Tenerife (Canary Isis); on Cyprus; and on St. Kilda and other small islands off the British Isles; improved domestic stock feral in Norway, Sweden, USA, islands off coasts of British Isles and New Zealand, Kerguelen Isis, and probably other oceanic islands.

STATUS: CITES - Appendix I as O. orientalis ophion; U.S. ESA - Endangered as O. musimon ophion; IUCN - Vulnerable as O. orientalis musimon and O. orientalis ophion .

SYNONYMS: anatolica, armeniana, corsicosardinensis, cyprius, erskinei, gmelini, laristanica, isphaganica; jubata Kerr, 1792; matschiei; mongolica Fitzinger, 1860; musimon, occidentalis, occidentosardinensis, ophion, orientalis, sinesella, urmiana.

COMMENTS: Includes orientalis; see Nadler et al. (1973). Also includes musimon and ophion, primitive domestic sheep, now feral; see S. Payne (1968), Vigne (1988), and Hemmer (1990). Hybridizes with vignei in C Iran; see Nadler et al. (1971 b) and Valdez et al. (1978).