Moufflon

Fauna > Moufflon       - by Provence Beyond

This mountain goat, with horns that curve around to its back, lives in bushy areas of the mountains.Originating in Corsica and Sardinia, it also lives in our Mercantour National Park. (To be accurate, the mouflon originated southwestern Asia, and was introduced to Corsica, Sardinia and Cyprus in the neolithic era.

There are around 1200-1400 mouflon in the Haut Tinée zone of the central area of the park (near the commune of Saint-Dalmas-le-Selvage). Because the mouflon has no natural enemy in this region except man, and even that threat is excluded in the park area, limited hunting is allowed to control the mouflon population.

At the end of 1994, 70 mouflon were discovered dead of cold and hunger in the Tinée and Ubaye Valleys.