SPECIES STORIES - Wildlife Conservation in China: Preserving the Habitat of China's Wild West - page 132

vastness of the Kekexili (southwestern Qinghai) or Qiangtang (northern Tibet). 42 My own
observations suggest an explanation for this: argali cannot tolerate deep snow in winter;
thus they must either live year-round where snow depths are moderate, or have access to
winter ranges where snow depths are usually low.
For example, during November-December 1998, and then again in April 1999, I
worked with staff at the Kharteng International Hunting Area (KIHA) in Aksai County,
western Gansu, to identify areas of argali concentration. Despite days of searching from
vehicles and climbing ridges where we knew argali were often seen during summer, we
found argali routinely only within the relatively low-lying hills (at elevations generally
below 4,000 meters) on either side of the Kharteng River. Unconvinced that either of
these surveys had uncovered the full extent of argali winter range in this area, I returned
in early February 2002 to map their full extent of winter occupancy, extending our sur-
vey beyond the geographic bounds that KIHA staff believed argali to use. The results of
this winter survey confirmed that KIHA staff's anecdotal knowledge had probably been
correct all along: argali were indeed restricted in winter to the low hills KIHA staff had
previously directed me to. Every argali group we saw was located in regions that were
either completely snow-free or had only patchy snow cover. Our observations of tracks
(or the lack of them) suggested that argali avoided areas with more than approximately
0.2 meters of snow. 43
Argali are clearly a mountain ungulate; one need not bother looking for them if no
mountains are in sight. That said, they are uninterested in (or perhaps incapable of) us-
ing steep terrain as a refuge from predators. On the Tibetan Plateau, they largely cede
the steepest slopes and most broken terrain to blue sheep; in the Tian Shan of Xinjiang,
these cliffs are left to the ibex. In fact, argali use slopes and ridges not so much to benefit
from any topographic refuge they provide as to facilitate visually scanning for potential
predators, a higher platform allowing a more encompassing view than a lower one. Their
favorite haunts appear to be on ridges where they can see in multiple directions simul-
taneously. Upon sensing potential danger, argali may continue to move upward along a
ridge, but if danger is perceived to be imminent, they are as likely to run down as up (i.e.,
away from the most forbidding topography), seemingly trusting in their speed rather than
their maneuverability in difficult terrain. Excepting the period immediately preceding the
breeding season (and, of course, the breeding season itself, when they are focused on
conspecifics of the opposite sex), argali seem to be interested in only two things: finding
abundant forage and looking out for wolves. Their primary defense against wolves is
space; an argali's location at any given time is a continual compromise between proximity
to good forage and distance from wolves. Thus, topography that is too broken, jagged,
or cliffy may actually be avoided by argali, as it could act to limit their ability to see
the full landscape surrounding them and thus limit their perceived measure of adequate
distance from any threat. 44
In sum, argali are hemmed in. Although they will cross surprisingly wide valleys,
even moving between discontinuous mountain ranges, they cannot be considered a
plains animal in the same way that gazelles or wild ass can; they need topography.
But simply mapping steep topography fails to capture the nuance of argali habitat