Page 114 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW - ISSUE 13

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The mouflon, Ovis orientalis
The most striking feature of the mouflon is the ram's circular horns. In
addition, their senses of smell, hearing and sight are excellently
developed. They can smell people from several hundred metres away and
hear even inconspicuous noises from a great distance.
© Christoph Bosch NABU

The described form of hunting with sighthounds is also significant for the questions that
arise in connection with domestication. And this is precisely because it requires the
interaction of man and dog to successfully hunt such a protective and skilful, as well as
intelligent animal as the mouflon. Thus, the strength of the dog is to track and trace a

game and to fix it in one place. The strength of the human, however, is to trust and listen
to the dog and to kill the game in the final hunting sequence. In this way, both partners,
working together in trust, have a success that they would not be able to manage alone, or
not as effectively.

However, as Henri Lhote describes hunting with the sighthounds, they work like a
conventional hunting dog here in Europe or in America. For hunting mouflon, the great
strength of the sighthound, speed, is not decisive. But the wide range of its usability
makes it a valuable companion in any kind of hunting. It is therefore questionable
whether selective breeding for single uses is ultimately useful.