Pressure increases for the barbary sheep to be declared an invasive species.

Ecological groups and agriculturalists want the Arruí eradicated.

Barbary sheep are devastating crops and natural reserves in and around the Regional Park of Sierra Espuña, to the extent where representatives of various owners associations and agricultural cooperatives in Murcia have requested that the regional government and the Ministry of the Environment declare the species a menace and a non-native species. This would make it an "invasive species", and enable it to be eradicated from Sierra Espuña and the Region of Murcia.

Barbary sheep are known locally as Arruí, and whilst they are an exciting sighting for walkers and visitors to the Region, are highly destructive to farmers and agriculturalists, stripping bark from fruit and nut trees, damaging vines and grapes and destroying planted crops.

The request has been submitted to the president of the Region and the Ministry, and narrates the history of the Barbary sheep population in the Region since it was introduced in the 1970s. It has now prospered and the population has mushroomed, despite outbreaks of sarcoptic mange in the 1980s and 1990s which threatened its survival, and has moved out of the Sierra Espuña and into the high plains to the north of Lorca and the Sierra de María (Almería).

Although there are regulations governing both the maximum number of Barbary sheep allowed and compensation to be paid to farmers whose crops are damaged, the signatories of the petition claim that the rules are being broken constantly.

Their request includes a report on the effect of the introduction of the species over the past 40 years, which concludes that the negative influences far outweigh the positives. The Barbary sheep was first introduced for game hunting, but has destroyed and displaced a large amount of the indigenous flora and fauna, as well as devastating crop farming yields in and around the park.

The request by landowners and farmers follows a similar one made a few months ago by the ANSE ecological group and Ecologistas en Acción, who agree that the animal has become a pest. They claim that it threatens native species and allows non-native diseases to spread.

This comes at a time when there is a national debate over the new catalogue of exotic and invasive species.

There has been increased media coverage of this subject recently and it appears that supporters of this campaign to eradicate the arruí are starting to win out against those who wish to see it stay in the Region as a legitimate hunting target.