ON THE WILD SIDE Rammed with facts
SMALL garden birds are flocking together for warmth and safety. They will travel together to sites they know have plentiful food and will soon spot any new garden bird feeders.
THESE handsome horned fellows have their home in central Asia, living on the edge of forests along the steep mountains of the Caucasus and Balkan ranges, as well as anywhere with suitable terrain with plenty of places to hide.
They are incredibly shy, gentle creatures, despite being 4ft long and weighing in at around eight stone. Mouflon are travelling nomads and move around according to the weather and in search of food.
They live in flocks of only one sex, with the males and females choosing to stay apart from each other until it is time to mate. They’re a bit like human stag parties, I suppose.
The huge spiral horns of the males are the species’ most impressive feature and are considered a valuable prize among trophy hunters. The horns can measure more than 60cm and if straightened out they would be half the length of their body. The females of most of their sub-species are naturally polled – they have no horns – but certain ones, such as those on the island of Corsica, have small horns. The horns grow bigger the older the animal gets, so they can be used as an indication of hierarchy among the flock.
The animals become mature at the age of three but have to do a lot of growing to move up the hierarchy enough to mate.
There is no single dominant individual in a herd and males particularly need to get to about six years old before they are permitted to mate.
The males only fight in breeding season, which is around now, and a mouflon battle rarely causes any kind of serious injury.
Males will usually headbutt a few times and then decide a winner. The victor then lets the loser lick his neck as a way of saying, “It’s all fine, we’re friends now”. Why can’t humans get along like that?
I’D like to talk about something a little more wild and less British today. Although we don’t have these creatures on our shores, we have their relatives in our fields and supermarkets. Today I’d like to introduce the mouflon, mountain sheep thought to be the our modern breeds’ ancestors.
THE annual December Game Awards are about as close as the industry gets to the Oscars.
Last week, boss Geoff Keighley announced the nominees for the sixth annual edition, with Hideo Kojima’s PS4 console-exclusive Death Stranding leading the way with 10 nominations. Elsewhere, Swedish developer Remedy notched up an impressive eight nominations for Control, including Game Of The Year, Best Direction, plus a Performance nomination for star Courtney Hope.
In a fantastic turn of events, Obsidian’s RPG
The Outer Worlds
– itself unveiled at
The Game Awards
2018 – got four nominations including Best Game and Direction.
And that highlights another major point – unlike the Oscars, The Game Awards has become something of an industry showpiece to reveal new titles to the masses.
If you tune in to watch on December
12 you can expect much more than a variety of dinner outfits and gracious platitudes. Stand by for a flurry of never-before-seen titles and first looks at some of the most highly anticipated games coming in the years ahead.
Rumours abound that we could see Warner Brothers’ next Batman game, as well as Ubisoft’s latest Assassin’s Creed.
There’s also the possibility of new trailers for Nintendo’s The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild 2 and Xbox’s Halo Infinite.
The Daily Star Sunday is proud to say it’s among The Game Awards’ international judges this year, but you can also get involved by voting for your favourite titles in each category.
All you have to do is head to the official website at thegameawards.com and cast your vote.