MODEL RELEASED. Cloning research. Researcher holding a container of sheep ovaries. Oocyte cells are collected from domestic sheep (Ovis aries) ovaries for use in cloning a rare type of wild sheep called a mouflon (Ovis orientalis musimon), which lives on the islands of Sardinia and Corsica. During cloning, nuclear material is removed from the sheep oocytes and is replaced with that from mouflon body (somatic) cells. The resulting cloned oocyte is cultured to the embryo stage and implanted into a foster sheep for pregnancy. The first cloned mouflon was born by this method in October 2000 at Italy's University of Teramo. Cloning could aid mouflon conservation.