Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
males' horns—which begin in a massive base above the forehead, curve gracefully back
over the head, flaring outward above the ears and then curving back forward again toward
the animal's mouth and nose—gives this beautiful animal an appealing image. But it is
the animal's economic allure, its potential to bring in hard cash from Westerners—unique
among Asian fauna—that actually lies behind the prominent position given to this species
at provincial- and county-level forestry offices throughout western China. Mention argali
and the topic immediately turns to trophy hunting and the potential it has to allow argali
to pay for at least some of their own conservation. This, in turn, leads to the tempests
inevitably spawned whenever the controversial subject arises of killing animals for their
heads. There are not many other species for which otherwise sane people will part with
twenty, thirty, or even forty thousand dollars.
41
Before discussing hunting, economics,
and incentives, however, a brief understanding of the animal is helpful.
Given the prominent position accorded it by provincial officials, it is a bit ironic that
the argali is not uniquely Chinese. In addition to China, argali inhabit most of Mongolia
and Tajikistan and most mountainous areas of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, as well as
isolated portions of Uzbekistan, Russia, and the northernmost regions of India, Pakistan,
and Afghanistan. Still, they are broadly distributed throughout western China, and if no-
where common, can be found in Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, Tibet, and possibly in small
numbers in Inner Mongolia and Ningxia.
But even though argali are closely related to the bighorn sheep familiar to North Ameri-
cans, and look very much like bighorns on steroids, they are ecologically quite different.
Whereas bighorn sheep find comfort and security on or near steep cliffs and rarely move
far from favored areas, argali are denizens of gentler hills and readily move large distances
(sometimes even crossing wide deserts and plains between distinct mountain ranges) in
search of forage and security. Whereas stocky bighorns prefer to bound upward into crags
and ridges when sensing danger, long-legged argali will run across sloping hillsides to put
distance between themselves and a threat. Thus, bighorns are relatively easy to observe
and study whereas argali are among the wariest, most sensitive, and most elusive species
on the planet. It is, after all, not merely the huge horns of adult males that trophy hunters
prize so highly, but also the great difficulty of approaching the animal closely, making
a successful hunt that much more of a perceived honor. Rather than thinking of them
as simply an Asian bighorn, think of them as a curious hybrid between a bighorn and a
barren-ground caribou and you've got the picture.
In a broad sense, argali live everywhere in western China that has enough graminoids
to provide forage and sufficiently hilly terrain (although not so steep or rugged that it
cannot be negotiated). In a narrower sense, however, argali seem to thrive only when a
number of factors come together to minimize what would otherwise be an extremely
inhospitable environment. Put another way, argali have a very wide geographic distribu-
tion, but a surprisingly narrow ecological niche. They are tolerant of arid environments
but are not a true desert-adapted species. To support such a large body, they appear to
require more high-quality grass than deserts can usually provide, and thus depend on the
orographic precipitation of their preferred mountain habitats to provide sufficient quantities
of grass. However, argali are rare among the mountain ranges in the very high-elevation
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