Barbary sheep

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For the 1917 film, see Barbary Sheep (film).

Barbary sheep
CITES Appendix II (CITES)[2]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Bovidae
Subfamily: Caprinae
Tribe:
Caprini
Genus: Ammotragus
(Blyth, 1840)
Species:
A. lervia
Binomial name
Ammotragus lervia
(Pallas, 1777)
Subspecies

A. l. angusi Rothschild, 1921
A. l. blainei Rothschild, 1913
A. l. lervia Pallas, 1777
A. l. fassini Lepri, 1930
A. l. ornatus I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1827
A. l. sahariensis Rothschild, 1913

Synonyms
  • Antilope lervia[3]
  • Capra lervia[4]
  • Ovis lervia

The Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia), also known as aoudad (pronounced [ˈɑʊdæd]), is a

Berber language
as waddan or arwi, and in former French territories as the moufflon.

Description

Barbary sheep stand 75 to 110 cm (2 ft 6 in to 3 ft 7 in) tall at the shoulder, with a length around 1.5 m (5 ft), and weigh 30 to 145 kg (66 to 320 lb).[5] They are sandy-brown, darkening with age, with a slightly lighter underbelly and a darker line along the back. Upper parts and the outer parts of the legs are a uniform reddish- or grayish-brown. Some shaggy hair is on the throat (extending down to the chest in males) with a sparse mane. Their horns have a triangular cross-section. The horns curve outward, backward, then inward, and can exceed 76 cm (30 in) in length. The horns are fairly smooth, with slight wrinkles evident at the base as the animal matures.[6]

Range

Natural range

Barbary sheep are

Red Sea Hills.[7]

Populations within its native range have been decreasing due to hunting, legal and otherwise, and destruction of habitat.[8][9]

Introduced populations

Barbary sheep at London Zoo.

Barbary sheep have been introduced to southeastern Spain[10] and the southwestern United States.[11]

They have become common in a limited region of southeastern Spain, since its introduction in 1970 to

vegetation.[13] The aoudad has also been introduced in Croatia several times, where there is a population in Mosor.[14]

Although the species has not yet been recorded in Australia, it is considered a pest species in Queensland with the potential to establish in the wild.[15]

Taxonomy

Juvenile

A. lervia is the only species in the genus Ammotragus. However, some authors include this genus in the goat genus Capra, together with the sheep genus Ovis.[4]

The subspecies are found allopatrically in various parts of North Africa:[7]

  • A. l. lervia Pallas, 1777 (vulnerable)
  • A. l. ornata I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1827 (Egyptian Barbary sheep, thought to be extinct in the wild but still found in the eastern desert of Egypt)[16][17]
  • A. l. sahariensis Rothschild, 1913 (vulnerable)
  • A. l. blainei Rothschild, 1913 (vulnerable)
  • A. l. angusi Rothschild, 1921 (vulnerable)
  • A. l. fassini Lepri, 1930 (vulnerable)

Habitats

Barbary sheep

Barbary sheep are found in

Barbary leopard, Barbary lion, and caracal, but now humans, feral dogs, competition due to overgrazing by domestic animals and drought[18]
threaten their populations.

Names

The

binomial name Ammotragus lervia derives from the Greek
ἄμμος ámmos ("sand", referring to the sand-coloured coat) and τράγος trágos ("goat").

Lervia derives from the wild sheep of northern Africa described as "lerwee" by Rev. T. Shaw in his "Travels and Observations" about parts of

Barbary and Levant
.

The Spanish named this sheep the arruis, from Berber arrwis, and the Spanish Legion even used it as a mascot for a time.

Aoudad ([ˈɑː.uːdæd]) is the name for this sheep used by the

Berbers, a North African people, and it is also called arui and waddan (in Libya
).

Gallery

References

  1. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2008.RLTS.T1151A3288917.en
    . Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. ^ "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  3. OCLC 62265494
    .
  4. ^
    OCLC 62265494
    .
  5. ^ Ammotragus lervia ultimateungulate.com Archived 2005-10-24 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ISBN 9781429811255
    .
  7. ^
    OCLC 62265494
    .
  8. doi:10.1017/S0952836902003394
    .
  9. ^ Šprem, Nikica; Gančević, Pavao; Safner, Toni; Jerina, Klemen; Cassinello, Jorge (2022). "Barbary Sheep Ammotragus lervia (Pallas, 1777)". Terrestrial Cetartiodactyla. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Verlag. pp. 367–381.
  10. S2CID 83656269
    .
  11. doi:10.1111/conl.12440
    .
  12. S2CID 24178790
    .
  13. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2907.2006.00077.x
    .
  14. ISBN 978-3-319-65038-8
    .
  15. ^ "Barbary sheep". July 2016.
  16. doi:10.1017/S0030605302000534
  17. doi:10.1017/S0952836902003394
  18. ^ Jamel Ben Mimoun, Jorge Cassinello, Saïd Nouira (January 2016). "Update of the distribution and status of the aoudad Ammotragus lervia (Bovidae, Caprini) in Tunisia". Mammalia.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Further reading

  • Cassinello, J. (1998). Ammotragus lervia: a review on systematics, biology, ecology and distribution. Annales Zoologici Fennici 35: 149-162
  • Cassinello, J. (2013). Ammotragus lervia: 595–599. In: Mammals of Africa. Vol VI. Pigs, Hippopotamuses, Chevrotain, Giraffes, Deer and Bovids. JS Kingdon & M Hoffmann (Eds.) Bloomsbury Publishing, London.
  • Cassinello, J. (2015). Ammotragus lervia (aoudad). In: Invasive Species Compendium. http://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/94507[permanent dead link] CAB International, Wallingford, UK.
  • Wacher, T., Baha El Din, S., Mikhail, G. & Baha El Din, M. (2002). New observations of the "extinct" Aoudad Ammotragus lervia ornata in Egypt. Oryx 36: 301–304.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Ammotragus lervia (category)
Wikispecies has information related to Ammotragus lervia.
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Udad".
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