The habitus of that argali tended to "square", i.e., the length didn’t exceed the height at the withers as much as in some other argali. This indicates the sprinting qualities of the sheep, which is able to escape from wolves by running rapidly along the plain slopes of the mountains and intermountain valleys to saving heights. This is also evidenced by the linear indicators of the length of the limbs: the front leg is 70 cm, the back (along the bend) is 105 cm, the hand is 37 cm, the foot is 45.5 cm. The length of the tail is 12.5 cm. The length of the ears is 10.4 cm, they are small, and this indicates that the male under study belongs to sheep, formed in the harsh climate of the highlands. The height where we got it ± 4400 m above sea level indicated it.
The girth of the body behind the shoulder blades of 136 cm indicates that, despite its high-speed qualities, the ram is solidly built and is in excellent physiological shape.
The height in the sacrum – 123 cm, barely exceeds the height at the withers (122 cm) and indicates the balance of the lengths of the fore and hind limbs, which also indicates the fitness of the body for long, fast running.
Thus, the argali extracted and measured by us turned out to be very close to the Tibetan "classic" in horns. The body length is also within the limits of variability, but the height at the withers and the length of the tail are somewhat superior to the known (few) measurements of Tibetan argali. It is possible that they would have entered the limits of the variability of the Tibetan form if the samples of measured Tibetan sheep had been larger.
The classic sign of the Tibetan argali is a white necklace (elongated hair on the throat and chest) was fully expressed. The rest of the color corresponded in general to the North Tibetan sheep of a similar age and size. It was lighter than the dark argali from the Himalayas and Ladakh, but it was quite natural, since the animals acquired a lighter color when moved to more northern or arid limits, according to the ecological rule of Gloger. It has to be added that adult and old male argali acquires white hair that create a lightening in the form of "gray hair" on the back. The animal we studied had some similarities in color and appearance with the Pamir form (Marco Polo sheep), but still more resembled the Tibetan argali and the animals from the photo of Huseyn Galobchi. This was especially true of the horns. The classic Pamir sheep could be considered as thin-horned sheep but our trophy and similar ones were easily called the Pamir bighorn.
The classic bighorn among argali is the Altai Mountain sheep, or argali. The girth of its horns at the base can reach 58 cm!!! The average values exceed 45 cm in girth.
The Tibetan argali is inferior to the Altai samples, but it can also quite correspond to this "proud title". The male we studied fully deserved it.
Many people consider the Altai argali to be the largest among the sheep, but we believe that the "giants” can be found in any of the geographical forms of large argali – Pamir, Tibetan, Kyrgyz, Kazakh, etc., but it is out of competition for the thickness of the horns.
In general, our Pamir bighorn has turned out to be quite Altai in size, since 122 cm at the withers now appears as the upper bar of the Altai argali, and the body length of the Pamir "thick-horned" (176 cm) almost reaches the Altai "optimum" - 180 cm. Probably, there are larger bighorns both in Altai and in the Pamirs, but we have not yet been able to find a greater measurement of the height at the withers in the Pamirs in literary sources.
We’ll give the measurements of the skull of the Pamir bighorn.
The measurements of the skull of the Tibetan argali in the Pamirs.
(the place where we got it is the Mashaly Gorge) 06.12.2016
MEASUREMENTS OF THE SKULL (mm)
The maximum length of the skull is 332
Condylobasal 322
Basilar (main) 300
The length of the front part of the skull is 264
Muzzle length 211
The length of the nasal bones is 140
The length of the upper dentition is 89
Interocular width 135
The maximum length of the skull is 183
The diameter of the eye orbit (longitudinal) 56
The length of the bony horn rods Left. 430 Right. 430.
Maximum width (the distance between the horn rods) 510
The girth of the horn rods 324
The measurements of the skull fit within the limits of the variability of the Marco Polo argali from the Pamirs and the Tibetan argali, they are relatively small.
In conclusion, it should be noted the following:
1. All argali, including large geographical forms, are close to each other and some of them may not reach the status of a well-differentiated subspecies.
2. Large zones of "hybridization" of individual argali phenotypes indicate the same.
3. It is possible that the territory from the eastern Pamir to the Karakoram, and possibly further (Western Tibet in China and other approximate territories) is a zone of hybridization of the phenotypes of the Pamir and Tibetan argali.
We can hardly believe that there are two phenotypes on the same territory that have never mixed with each other. Mutual penetration of Tibetan and Pamir argali is quite possible, as well as the manifestation of both phenotypes in the same population and even a large herd.
4. It is quite possible that there is the permanent existence of the Tibetan (Ladakh) argali in the Pamirs.
However, all these are our speculations.
As for the argali taken by Edward Bendersky, it has certain differences from the classical parameters of the Marco Polo sheep, and we still have to answer the question if it is a different phenotype of the argali in the Pamirs, a transitional form, or still fits within the limits of the individual variability of the Pamir sheep. Morphological analysis means a lot, but today the geneticists have the last word.
Epilogue
The expedition was over, and it was time to leave the Roof of the World. It was time to leave wide, spacious mountain valleys, framed by ridges and crowned with cascades of red bizarre rocks. The steep mountain slopes and valleys were strewn with countless skulls and skeletons of argali as in the time of Marco Polo. Huge herds of sheep ran away in all directions from our path. They looked at us from the tops of the mountains or passed by at a relatively short distance. Sheep were everywhere. We clearly saw there the advantages of a developed and progressive modern hunting economy that protects and preserves argali and other rare animal species.
We know what the sheep protection in Russia has led to. Altai argali go to poachers, wolves and other predators. Their number has been progressively decreasing since the 50s. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the south-eastern Altai was considered one of the best places in Central Asia for hunting the largest bighorn argali from existing ones. This fact was recognized by many hunters who visited those places in the early 90s. There is nothing to blame except for the wrong anti-hunting way of the preservation of the Altai argali. It seems an absurd desire of nature conservationists to do everything to make rare species die out under the bullets of poachers and in the teeth of predators – but not allow hunters to protect them and reproduce their population.
Let's return to the reddish rocks of the Pamirs, inhabited not by argali only but the Pamir bighorns that occupies our imagination. We managed to hunt the Pamir ibex, watched wolves hunting argali before getting ready for the return trip. During the expedition, we saw a lot of bearded vultures, golden eagles, white-headed barn owls and kumai (snow vulture), huge black ravens which pecked at the corpse of argali. We heard the voices of the rarest Tibetan snow cocks that live only in the Pamirs in Tajikistan, inhaled the dry mountain air and felt all the "charms " of the altitude between 4200 and 5000 m above sea level.
We had collected information about the snow leopard, white-footed brown bear, Ladakh urial, mountain goose which nested on Zorkul, and other animals, which dwelled in the Pamir valleys.
We observed the peculiarities of the argali rut in the Pamirs. I clarified some details of the habitat, tried to characterize the Pamir bighorn morphologically.
Upon arrival in Moscow, we handed over samples of the tissues to the Federal Research Center for Animal Husbandry named after Academy Member L.K. Ernst To the genetics Doctor of Biological Sciences N. A. Zinovieva. and also genetics, candidate of biology, M. V. Kholodova from the Institute of Ecology and Evolution named after A. N. Severtsov. We will wait for their scientific conclusion.
We also measured of the Pamir ibex - the most interesting object of mountain hunting, took samples of its tissues for genetic analysis, but this is a separate story.
During that expedition we’ve met friendly, cheerful and resilient people, people who have became our real friends at the end of the trip - they are the brothers Atobek and Zafar Bekmurodi, passionate hunters, organizers of hunts and keepers of the nature of these unique places. The rows of our friends replenished by Shoudi Afzurov, who worked with us, Ali Sabzaliyev, the cameraman, the camp staff and employees who left the best impressions.
It is necessary to note the selfless work of our cameraman Oleg Laptev, who has managed to shoot the most unexpected and unpredictable moments of mountain hunting. I would especially like to note his professionalism, kindness and cordiality.
We will remember, for a long time, the wide mountain valley, rocks, passes and the endless Pamir sky with clouds of amazing shapes carried away by the wind.
In the evening, we warmly said goodbye to our friends. It was a long way again, now down. We drove along the Panj, which was raging in the gorges, already in the dark. Then there was the hospitable house of Ayub Mulloerov again. In the early morning, his father took us around his estate and its surroundings and showed where they kept the markhors, ibex, Himalayan snow cocks and snow leopards. He smiled broadly and told how one evening the stone partridge flew down from the mountains right into his hands. Magic!
We said goodbye to the Pamirs, to its harsh and beautiful nature, to the good-natured and courageous people hardened by the Pamirs and hoped to return here again.
Quotes:
From CIC Caprinae Atlas of the World
The North Tibetan argali. Harris (2002) reported that the average length of the horns of 33 trophies of argali from Aksai was about 110 cm. The average age (judging by the annual rings on the horns) was 8.2 years. Twenty argali, got from 1991 to 2005 and registered by Rowland Ward (2006) and SCI (2009) as Gansu argali, had an average horn length (the longest horn) of 114.9 cm and an average base circumference of 43.3 cm. The largest recorded trophy, extracted in Aksai (2005), had a larger horn length of 127.3 cm and a small base circumference of 42.5 cm compared to the length. Unfortunately, the distance between the tips of the horns is available only for four specimens registered by Rowland Ward; the largest width is marked as 69.9 cm, and the average is 63.3 cm. There are no significant differences between the North Tibetan and Tibetan argali: the average length of the horns and the distance between the ends of the horns are 114.9 and 43.3 cm versus 118.1 cm and 43.2, respectively.
We can see a larger gap in a limited sample (n = 4) of North Tibetan argali between the ends of the horns is visible-63.3 cm against the usually dense curl (n = 31) of Tibetan argali with an average value of 51.4 cm.
Tibetan argali. The weight of the skull and horns of the largest male, extracted by Schaefer (number ASK 17335), was 12.3 kg. The largest trophy registered in Rowland Ward, with a horn length of 140.3 cm, a base circumference of 47.6 cm and a distance between the ends of the horns of 73.7 cm, is dated 1898 and is listed as taken in Tibet/China. Lydekker mentions this skull with field measurements in "Large and Small Prey of India" on page 85: "The largest recorded horns taken by A. Pike in Ladakh have dimensions of 144.5 cm along the frontal bend and a coverage of 47.6 cm, and the distance between the ends of the horns is 73.7 cm.” The horns of only four other sheep reached or exceeded 127.0 cm in length. However, the average length of the horns of 43 specimens recorded between 1898 and 2000 is 118.1 cm. The horns have rather massive bases – the largest recorded is 50.2 cm with an average value of 43.2 cm.
Six argali were captured between 1985 and 2001 in the Dulan International Hunting Grounds (attributed by the Chinese supervisory authorities to the Gansu argali, О. a. dalai-lamae by mistake) in the Burhan-Buddha Mountains, a massive mountain range southwest of the Caidam Basin and due east of the Golmud-Lhasa highway, but these trophies are not mentioned in either Rowland Ward or SCI.
We compared the sizes of recently hunted North Tibetan argali (registered as Gansu argali) with early measurements of Tibetan argali and found no significant differences in the morphology of the horns, except for a much wider lumen in the North Tibetan argali. It seems that the distance between the ends of the horns in Tibetan argali rarely reaches the same width as in North Tibetan argali. The average distance from horn's tips in the specimens of the Tibetan argali (n = 31) reaches 51.4 cm, while in the North Tibetan phenotype (N = 4) - 63.3 cm – about 12 cm difference.
It's necessary to go on the research to confirm the lumen as a possible difference between the two phenotypes.
Photo by Oleg Laptev
