We should say some words about one more sheep species. This isolated population arouses high interest to hunters from all over the world. We talk about the Putorana snow sheep, subspecies Ovisnivicolaborealis(Eschscholtz, 1829).
It looks like other sheep but is heavier a little bit. The body length is about 150-180 sm. The medium size animal has massive carcass with thick and short legs. Rams have massive curved horns, ewes also have horns but they are smaller and arc-shaped. The weight of adult rams can reach 100 kg and 60-65 for ewes. The bodies of wild sheep are covered by a coat of thick hair to protect them from cold. The main color of back and sides is brownish with a white-yellow belly. That species has separated from its main habitat more than a thousand years ago but hasn't got features which differ it from other sheep.
A Putorana snow sheep is considered to be a rare species (III category) and listed in the Red Book of rare species. Nowadays it is not in danger of being destroyed. From 1984 it dwells under protection in Putorana Republican Nature Reserve (in 1988 it was transformed into the State Nature Reserve "Putoransky" with a simultaneous increase in the area of more than 5 times). Its population increased from that time.
You can ask why have it decreased before? The anthropogenic pressure on that species couldn’t be high. The animals inhabit in the inaccessible mountains with rocky cliffs and tundra pastures on the heights not lower than 1700 masl. They prefer to stay on places with low snow cover where they can feed and move during the winter time. Their favorite habitats are terraces near the forest border with steep edges. They descend to the forest free terraces during the winter season but if there is much snow they rise to the plateau.
The scientists think that a large number of multi-snow winters and the lack of pastures could influence the growth of population. We shouldn’t forget about the population growth of their natural enemies -wolves and wolverines. Gadflies, blood-sucking insects, other parasites and diseases has added problems too.
But the most destructive effect had the grazing of domestic deer on the original snow sheep pastures. The shepherds shot snow sheep for meat without any limits. The significant growth of sheep population was notices in the areas where the herding had been stopped. The members of many researching expeditions hunted snow sheep without any control too. The population of Putorana snow sheep was about 800-850 individuals at the end of 70s last century.
At the end of 70s the deer husbandry was pushed back from the Putorana plateau by wild deer who chose that areas as wintering grounds. The number of animals increased twice to 1400 animals in 1977. After forming the reserve the scientists accounted the number of sheep and it was 3578 individuals! The effective the population size has exceeded the level that provides conditions for its long-term survival. The researches, made at the beginning of 90s, showed the constant population growth in the main habitats of the species. In 1995 it has reached the number 5500 animals! The growth of the population continued in out century. In 2002-2003 it reached 6000-6500 individuals.
We want attract your attention to the moment, concerned the population density. In the past sheep was widespread on the North West of Mid Siberian plateau- the Putorana mountains and surroundings. The border of the areal was by the steep north edge of the Putorana plateau (70°30' n.l.); on the South by Polar circle latitude (66°30' n.l.), on the West by the watershed of rivers Pyasina and Hantayka. The Eastern border was not clearly defined because of the flat form of relief. The habitat of snow sheep had focal nature and the conditional border was 100° e.l. Sheep inhabited an area of about 200 thousand square kilometers. To 60s-70s of last century their areal reduced in two times and was limited by the highest part of the central plateau. The main population, with the density of 3.3 animals 100 sq.km, was concentrated in the center of that area. The distribution of population on the periphery of the areal was dispersed and the density wasn’t higher than 0,11/per 100 sq.km.
At 70s the areal was about 60K sq.km. , now it reaches 120K sq.km and it tends to expand. The dissemination is mosaic and has a ribbon-intermittent character. It's closely depends on the separate sections of numerous valleys of the plateau. There are 12 sheep groups with the population more than 100 individuals in each. The usual group size is about 5-20 animals. They are concentrated in the watershed of rivers Delochi, Duluk, Holokit, and a number of others.
The expansion of the areal is not particularly active and is very uneven in different areas because of sheep's requirements. The significant areas that suit for the habitat of this subspecies remain uninhabited. Harpicha Lake Valley, lower reaches of the river Gulyami and others. We don't know why it happens. But it’s good that we have space for the population growth. The scientists suggest to introduce sheep in the Urals.
28% of the modern sheep areal is in the Putorana Natural reserve and about 40% from the total population of the subspecies.
The reason of the population growth is not only in the protection but in the remote habitat. The reduction of geological exploration and a serious increase in the cost of helicopter service has great positive effect to the dynamic of the growth.
The legal hunting is for that species is prohibited except the cases noted in the legislation (for scientific purposes and others). All trophies, we got, have been taken in such way and five of them are in the Record Book of SCI. There were just 18 official hunts for Putorana snow sheep during 90s of the last century.
The record belongs to Hussein Golabchi, who got his trophy in 1995 in the Putorana mountains. The trophy characteristics: the length of the left horn – 91.1 sm (35 7/8 inches), the right horn – 91,8 sm (36 1/8 inches); the circumference of the left horn at the base– 35,6 sm (14 4/8 inches); the circumference of the right horn – 35,9 sm (14 4/8 inches), the circumference of the left horn at the 1st quarter of the length – 33 sm (13 2/8 inches), the circumference of the right horn at the 1st quarter of the length – 33 sm (13 2/8 inches). The number of points - 164 1/8.
In the last years legal hunting for Putorana snow sheep wasn’t conducted. There are not Putorana snow sheep trophies registered for Russian hunters in the Record Book of SCI.
The expedition of wildlife photographer Sergey Gorshkov found the entrails of sheep on the plateau. They were killed not far ago. The poachers used MI -8 to get there and kill the sheep. Those poachers are not interested in the trophy features of the animals because non of the Hunting clubs will register such trophy. They need only meat that's why they kill ewes. The State won’t allocate money to protect these animals and the only obstacle which can save them, is the inaccessibility of their habitats. There are not hunting farms, located near the Reserve which are interested in the protection of that subspecies because of the conservatism of the state's environmental policy. Though we know how it works on the example of project, realized by Juri Matison in Pamir.
