Zh. Dimitrov
Department of Animal husbandry – non-ruminant animals and special branches, Faculty of Agriculture, Trakia university, Student’s campus, 6000, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria

(Manuscript received 22 October 2025; accepted for publication 30 January 2026)

*e-mail: zivkod@abv.bg

Abstract. The European mouflon (Ovis orientalis musimon Schreber, 1782) is the main resource game species in the State hunting ground Balchik. Aiming to assess the status of its population there in favor of the future management, the ranking of the trophies according to the evaluation protocols from 2011 to 2023 was analyzed. Based on 33 evaluation protocols a trend was found for reaching trophy-aged mouflons rewarded gold medals after the age of 7. Animals shot in their fourth year were unawarded. For the studied period, a total of 75.79% of the shot animals were awarded medals, while only 21.21% were not given a prize. More than half of all evaluated trophies for the period took gold medals, also indicating the suitability of the habitat coupled with well-conducted biotechnical activities in the SHG Balchik. More than 95% of the trophies from the SHG Balchik were with more than 40 cm horn span, indicating the good trophy condition of the mouflon population. No additional management, except importing breeding animals is recommended to increase the quality of future trophies.