A Barbary Sheep (Ammotragus lervia), or Aoudad was describe by Pallas in 1777. This animal originated from the desert mountains of Sahara (North Africa) has the impressive mane grows on the throat side of its neck. It’d be more right to call it the beard sheep not barbary sheep, as it’s called in Russia.
The name Aoudad sheep - from the English word aoudad, originates from the Tunis word udad. Tunisians call these animals by this word. It has no sense to ask what does it mean. Another name, used in the English sources, is a Barbary sheep but it's also not correct because it doesn't inhabit only in the Barbary but it belongs to the sheep conditionally. Biologists agree that it takes the intermediate position between sheep and goats.
Adult males stand about 1 m tall at the shoulder, and weigh to 115 kg. The head and body length is about 1,5 m (females are smaller). The sheep males have solid, strong constitution. Their hair of camouflage colors is oriented to the colors of the habitat and can be from sandy -gray to brown- reddish. The lower torso is much lighter. Both sexes have thick horns like all sheep have. They are triangular in cross-section. And they recurve forming the semicircle above the neck. The rings on the horns disappear, when the animal grows, and look smooth. The maximum known length of horns is 80 cm
The main advantage of males is their mane. The long, soft hair grows on the throat side of the neck to the its breast. In adult males especially, this mane may form a long "pants" that can cover front legs. The woolly coat is dense, bristly, of medium length.
It's known about animals lived to 17 years old in captivity. Their life expectancy in the wild nature is shorter because the old animals are easy prey for the leopards. It's interesting but the sheep don’t run away when there is a threaten but freeze on the place. Their main protection from predators is hearing, vision and the ability to jump high (up to 2 m in height). They easily jump from one rock to another and climb the steep slopes.
The feeding time is in the mornings, late evenings or at nights. Hot hours they prefer to spent laying in the shadow. They go to the watering hole regularly if there is a water source close. If there is none of them, they lick the morning dew from the leaves and grass. The morning dew and vegetation juice is their usual water source because their main habitat is hard-to-reach rocky areas of mountains in the desert.
A Barbary sheep is a gregarious. The group consists of an adult male and several females with babies. Old males and pregnant females stay alone. The youth gathered in groups by 4-6 individuals.
The rut season is all year around but its peak with the male's fights is from September to November.
There are six subspecies of the Aoudad sheep: Ammotragus lervia lervia, A. l. ornata, A. l. sahariensis, A. l. blainei, A. l. angusi, A. l. fassini. Their original habitat is shown on the map from the “World Atlas CIC” The animal’s population in the endemic areal is vere small and goes on to reduce. The reason is the locals from the Sahara Desert who hunt for them for meat and skins. They use all part of the animals including horns and tendons. This species is in the International Red Book of Rare species but it doesn’t help to protect it. A few numbers of Aoudad sheep can be met in their natural environment in Chad, Sudan and Tunisia. Previously, they also lived in Algeria, Libya, Morocco, but completely disappeared in these countries.
The introduction of Barbary sheep was more effective in the countries where it is grown for hunting purpose. It happened so that hunting for these sheep is not an easy matter. The hunters don’t have the possibility to approach closer than 250 m because of the terrain features.
The trophies, registered in the SCI Record Book, are endemics from North Africa (the smallest part, few dozens) and the introduced species (thousand and a half).
Russian hunters, who have registered trophies of the Aoudad sheep are:
Alexander Smuzikov – 125 3/8"; 118 7/8";
Mechislav Klimovich – 118 3/8";
Konstantin Popov – 117 3/8";
Alexander Moshkalov – 117 2/8".
The record belong to Vincent Giner, who got the trophy of the Aoudad sheep in 2009 in Spain. Trophy Specifications: Left horn length-33 2/8 inches (i.e. approximately 84.5 cm), right horn length-32 6/8 inches; the circumference of the base of the horns is 13 5/8 inches. The number of points - 148.
The good trophy is from 70 cm.
From the editor:
Craig Boddington:
The Aoudad is wildly spread in North Africa but hunting for it has been always tough. Its population is small and the inhabitant of those animals looks like the Moon surface. The climate is dry and harsh.
I was lucky to hunt for this sheep in the mountains of An-Nadi in Chad, when it was legal for a short period of time ten years ago. I remember that hunt as a real safari, one of the best in my life. We saw animals each day but only a handful of them but once we detected the group of fourteen males. Unfortunately, Chad is closed for hunting now and I’m not sure It’d be opened in the nearest future. The only legal possibility to get the endemic trophy of Aoudad sheep is hunting in North Sudan. The main trophy there is the Nubian ibex. Hunting for it is also tough. The only place where you can meet the sheep there is the isolated ridges far to the west in the desert. I heard only about two cases when hunters got trophies there. But don't lose the hope. The definite number of these animals’ dwell in Morocco, I saw them in the park in Tunisia and know about good size population in South Egypt. Each of these regions can open and the chance to get the trophy will rise.
The introduced animals.
First of all, it should be said that aoudad was introduced in other countries of Africa. I’m talking about South Africa. First Barbary sheep were imported to South Africa at the end of 70s from the zoos of Johannesburg, Pretoria, Bloemfontein and others. Nowadays all animals are rotated in about fifty hunting farms, located in rocky regions of Eastern Cape Province, Free State Province and Northern Cape Province. The number of animals in each farm differs from 20 to 350 individuals. We can judge about the population growth in the sample of one ranch. The herd of 50 sheep had been settled there at the beginning of 90s, now their number is 7 times more.
The nearest place from North Africa in Europe, is Spain. The landscape and weather condition similarity gave the Spaniards the idea to introduce Aoudad sheep. It happened in 70s. The first animals were from Casablanca zoo in Morocco. The introduction was done by the Natural reserve Sierra Espuna in the province of Murcia for hunting purposes only. The sheep adapted easily and widely spread among the huge territory. Later they even needed to reduce the population in Murcia. Now there are about 1,500 of them.
The species was also introduced to the Canary Islands in 1972. And also, successfully. But then the sheep began to destroy the autochthonous flora, the unique endemic plants and people had nothing to do but to shoot all sheep. The depopulation wasn’t finished and you still can meet the survive sheep there.
The sheep introduction to the private hunting ranches made it's possible to hunt for this species in several regions - near Ciudad Real, Caceres, Valencia and Alicante.
The ranch Navalvillar de Pela in Estremadura has the unique population of animals which escaped from the corral and survived in the wild nature. Sheep don't have the feed competitors there, such as deer and mouflons. The virgin plants became their feed base and protected from people. The Rocky Mountains and stony soil are ideal for them. The new ranch owner reduced the number of hunts there and it improved the trophy quality and males' age had increased.
The Barbary sheep was successfully introduced in USA (California, Texas, New Mexico, recent reports from Oklahoma and Colorado) and only for hunting reasons only. The animals have bred so much in Texas that they cause damage to fields with winter crops.
The first Aoudad sheep were released into nature in New-Mexico in 1950 and then in 1957. This project was also successful. By 1966 their population increased to 400-500 individuals. Later in 1989, there were more than 20K sheep.
In conclusion I have to note that species, introduced in Spain in US was Ammotragus lervia lervia, but it's not confirmed. Some scientists insist on the theory that there were no definite subspecies, imported there but their crossbreeds only.
Quotes:
Aoudad or Barbary sheep in North America
John Williams, the agent for Profi-Hunt in the United States
I was impressed by the size of trophies and number of animals during my first hunting trip for a Barbary sheep in the canyons of Western Texas. It was written a lot about world sheep but not all hunter even heard about Barbary or Aoudad sheep (Ammotragus lervia)., introduced to North America.
The first animals were imported to America at the beginning of XX century for zoos and private ranches. The first time when they were released to the wild nature was in 1950. It was done for a hunting purpose. Thirty one animals were released in canyon Palo Duro in the narrow zone of Texas (height 862 m), and thirteen other animals in the dry Davis mountains in Western Texas (the highest peak is 2554 m). A small population of these sheep inhabits in California now but hunting for them is prohibited.
When the Texas sheep population increased to 400-500 individuals the limited hunt was opened on the private ranches. All hunts were controlled by the landlords. Today's population in Texas exceeds 25,000 animals. The Barbary sheep in New Mexico live on the state or federal lands and the number of hunts is regulated by the number of licenses. Texas is the best variant for a foreign hunter who want to get this trophy.
Barbary sheep in Texas give birth all year round. Americans call sheep' mane - the chaps like a leather protection for legs, used by cowboys. This characteristic feature makes this species attractive for the production of stuffed animals in full growth or to the chest.
Usually it takes 2-3 days to get the trophy.
In some regions this species share the habitat with more rare and well- known species the Desert Bighorn sheep. There are not many predators which can be a threat to these species. The exceptions are mountain lions and packs of coyotes, although they usually attack smaller animals.
Hunting for a Barbary sheep is opened all year but the best time is from February to March because of weather conditions. It's dry and not hot yet. Low temperatures are possible at night and in the morning. It's too hot there in summer and lots of snakes. The animals prefer to hide in the shadow during day hours.
Aoudad sheep, inhabited on the non-fenced areas in US, is included in the lists of trophy categories of SCI and OVIS "Free territories, introduced". The best way to get this trophy is to find the right outfitter who can organize the hunting trip on the large hunting grounds with good size sheep populations. The carbines with 30th cal and good optics suit well for this hunting. Usually, outfitters provide a carbine to the client for rent.
