SPECIES STORIES - Wildlife Conservation in China: Preserving the Habitat of China's Wild West - page 133

needs, because they do not tolerate slopes that are too rough or steep. Although they
are basically denizens of arid climates, they appear to require both quantity and qual-
ity of graminoids (in summer) and shrubs (in winter) more similar to the needs of the
even-larger-bodied wild yak than the desert-adapted goitered gazelle. Yet mapping
precipitation as a surrogate for forage similarly fails to capture argali habitat needs,
because too much moisture means too much snow, and they require winter ranges that
are either blown free of snow or simply don't accumulate much. And because argali
use solitude as a defense against predation, they further limit themselves to undisturbed
habitats—which, I will argue below, constitutes their greatest conservation challenge.
Thus, argali must find an elusive compromise, negotiating a host of adverse factors in
order to successfully maintain their populations.
George Schaller considered that the primary threats to argali populations were poaching,
the isolation and fragmentation of herds, and possibly disease. 45 Although I agree that the
status of argali—at least in many regions within its range—is precarious and its future at
risk, my take on the relative importance of various limiting factors is somewhat different.
Until the mid-1990s, poaching was certainly rampant in western China, and even today
it no doubt occurs occasionally. But recent Chinese efforts to crack down on organized
poaching are beginning to reap dividends, and subsistence poaching by local pastoralists
has now become all but impossible with the governmental confiscation of all guns.
Argali herds are geographically disparate, but this probably reflects their restricted
habitat needs, not necessarily anthropogenic fragmentation. Further, my observations
suggest that Schaller's characterization of argali as “sedentary” and slow to resettle areas
once removed is misleading. 46 I have observed large argali groups that have recolonized
mountains believed to have been previously poached out. 47 On numerous occasions (most
importantly, just prior to the breeding season), I have seen argali traverse minor hillocks
and frozen rivers between distant mountain ranges, features that the superficial view of
topographic maps would suggest might act as barriers to movement. I have also observed
argali within a few hundred meters of highways, suggesting (albeit not proving) that they
can cross at least some man-made structures. While genetic concerns stemming from small
population size should never be dismissed, argali appear to be capable of substantial gene
flow among seemingly distant groups, relegating these concerns to a secondary status.
We know little of disease in argali; local reports suggest that they are susceptible to
eye diseases (instances of blindness have been reported), and the scientifically well-
documented history of disease transfer when bighorn sheep encounter domestic sheep
serves as an appropriate caution. However, I am not familiar with any reports of dramatic
die-offs among argali of the kind we typically observe among North American bighorns
when diseases are transmitted to them by domestic sheep. And unlike in North America,
where old-world domestic sheep (and their pathogens) are relative newcomers, argali
have lived in the same mountains with domestic sheep for millennia and thus may have
had time to develop resistance to their pathogens.
Instead, my concerns for the future of argali center on their seeming need for isolation
from human activity in view of the steadily increasing magnitude of human presence in
just those areas where argali can meet their biological needs. Livestock grazing exists at