Über die Beziehung zwischen Muttertier und Jungen beim Mufflon (Ovis aries musimon, Pall.)

Summary

A group of six Mouflon Mountain Sheep (Ovis aries musimon, Pall.) and their lambs were observed in an enclosure of the Animal Park in Berne (Switzerland). Auditive stimuli (voices of lambs) from a recorder cause the mother-sheep to look for their young but did not have a specific value. By experiments with olfactory stimuli it has been proved that mother-sheep know their lambs individually by smell already at the age of twelve hours. The lambs know their mother by sight from the third day on. The relation of the lamb to the specific characters of Mouflon-sheep results from a learning process and not from imprinting.