Argali
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Photo] Ovis ammon in Parc de Merlet (fr:Mouflon). Date 28/04/2007. Author Lin??1 (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Lin%C3%A91)

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

The argali, or the mountain sheep (species Ovis ammon) is the globally endangered wild sheep, which roams the highlands of Central Asia (Himalaya, Tibet, Altay). It is also the biggest wild sheep, standing as high as 120 cm and weighing as much as 140 kg. The Pamir argali (also called Marco Polo sheep, for they were first described by that traveller) may attain more than 6 feet in length.

The general colouration varies between each animal, from a lightish yellow to a dark grey-brown. The face is lighter. Males have a whitish neck ruff and a dorsal crest. Males have two large corkscrew horns, some measuring 190 cm/ 6.3 ft in length. Males use their horns for competing with one another. Females also carry horns, but much smaller.

Argalis live in herds between 2 and 100 animals, segregated by sex, except during breeding season. Migrating herds, especially males, have been reported. With long legs, herds can travel quickly from place to place. Argalis tend to live at higher elevations during the summer.

Argalis are considered endangered or threatened throughout their entire range, due to habitat loss from overgrazing of domestic sheep and hunting. They are hunted for both their meat and their horns, used in traditional Chinese medicine. Legal hunting of trophies has also added to the mortality.

Traditional subspecies:

Ovis ammon ammon, Altai argali
Ovis ammon collium
Ovis ammon hodgsonii, Tibetan argali
Ovis ammon karelini
Ovis ammon polii, Marco Polo sheep
Ovis ammon darwini
Ovis ammon severtzovi
Ovis ammon jubata
Ovis ammon nigrimontana

Some sources consider mouflon, the ancestor of modern domestic sheep as Ovis ammon musimon, however DNA testing has not supported this. Several subspecies of argali have been genetically tested for mtDNA and one study found that the subspecies Ovis ammon ammon, O. ammon darwini and the urial subspecies, O. vignei bochariensis grouped closely while the subspecies Ovis ammon collium and O. ammon nigrimontana grouped with the urial subspecies O. vignei arkal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argali

The text in this page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article shown in above URL. It is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.