V. Kolesnikov5 2 Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Moscow 117218, Russia e-mail: vugarbagirov@mail.ru 4 Siberian Research and Development, Design and Technology Institute of Livestock Breeding, RAAS, Krasnoobsk settlement 630501, Novosibirsk province, Russia 3 Novosibirsk Zoo, Novosibirsk 630001, Russia 5 Samara State Agricultural Academy, Ust-Kinelsky settlement 446442, Samara province, Russia Received October 1, 2012 S u m m a r y By a hybridization of wild and domestic sheep, a gene fond of sheep breeds can be enriched with useful traits, and the rare and disappearing species reconstructed. <...> The parental and hybrid animals were compared as to their karyograms which were determined on the base of ideogram for goats with addition of metacentric chromosomes. <...> The cytogenetic data and the reproductive state of the hybrid confirm that the taxa used in hybridization are closely related. <...> Sheep farming has always been an important branch of domestic agriculture. <...> Sheep is well adapted to harsh climate of Russia, and for many centuries it has been farmed for food, wool and other specific products; in some cases sheep is the only animal species able to utilize available natural resources. <...> Today, domestic sheep is represented by many breeds and breed groups that show a wide range of genetically determined features concerning animal morphology, productivity, and adaptability to specific conditions of breeding and farming. <...> A promising resource for improvement of sheep is hybridization with wild relative species – members of the genus Ovis, which are possible donors of valuable determinants introduced into the gene pool of domestic sheep (3). <...> Along with it, interspecific hybridization can be used as an efficient method of reconstruction and restoration of endangered species (4-10). <...> Natural habitat of wild sheep covers a vast territory of Eurasia from the Mediterranean Sea islands and Near East to Kamchatka, along with the West of North America. <...> The most substantiated is determining seven species of wild sheep - urial (Ovis vignei), European mouflon (O. musimon), Asian mouflon (O. orientalis), argali (O. ammon), snow sheep (O. nivicola), bighorn sheep (O. canadensis), and Dall sheep (O. <...>