Europe is home to wild sheep too: mouflons. Mouflons, like ibexes and chamois, naturally live in mountainous regions. When in danger, they flee up steep cliffs to safety. Other sheep breeds have been developed from wild breeds through domestication.

Sheep do not naturally occur in the Netherlands: their natural flight behaviour doesn't work in our very flat landscape. Neither have sheep co-evolved with our native plants, unlike other large grazers. With sheep grazing you therefore often see that the vegetation is completely eaten away and only a few flowering plants remain. The natural defense strategies of these plants against being eaten, fails with sheep and goats. In this reasoning, natural grazing with sheep isn't a good fit within the Netherlands: however it can be in other parts of Europe.