Monthly Archives December 2013

Endemic Corsican fauna: The Mouflon (mountain sheep)

The Corsican mouflon is a subspecies (Ovis aries / orientalis musimon), endemic to Corsica and Sardinia.
Patience must be practised in order to perceive them hiding in the mountains, especially in the Cintu and Bavella reserves – currently, the population is estimated between 500/1000 animals.

According to F. Poplin in 1979, and taken up by Vine (1992), the species was not present in Corsica before the Neolithic, therefore, the Corsican mouflon should be considered as a sheep (domesticated from two subspecies of western mouflon), brought by farmers to Corsica and Sardinia and returning to the wild – a process of undomestication.
Thus, he would have reacquired characteristics closer to his distant and wild cousins.
What about endemism in...

Did you know ?

In Corsica, it is customary to fire shots in the air for Christmas, New Year and certain other ceremonies ..

Yes, but why ?

Extending culturally throughout the US, Asia, Corsica, and also the Maghreb – this tradition permits the celebration of holidays such as New Year, along with religious holidays.

While the powder was originally created to make noise, the historian Constantin Parvulesco believes that shooting in the air sometimes takes on a ritualised and religious dimension.

Gunshots in the air also register within a symbolic dimension. “Weapons are intimately associated with the concept of freedom in many countries. Therefore, firing in the air is a means of expression...