AsianScientist (Jul. 26, 2011) – Thanks to a non-invasive technique that extracts DNA extracts from fecal samples, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Afghanistan Program have finally managed to pinpoint movements of the once-elusive Marco Polo (or argali) sheep.
Named after the famous 13th century explorer, the Marco Polo sheep is a subspecies of argali (also known as Marco Polo’s Argali or Pamir Argali) and was mentioned and described by Marco Polo himself in his travelogue.
Known for their long, majestic spiraling horns (the longest, in fact, of all sheep) with intricate coil patterns, argali are classified as Near Threatened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and threatened by human-related activities such as poaching, habitat degradation, and fragmentation.
Because Marco Polo sheep are so elusive and difficult to track, the research team collected fecal samples from 172 individual sheep from five different areas in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and China.
Researchers searched for sheep on high vantage points, collecting fecal pellets after a group of animals was located, then extracting and isolating genetic material from the fecal matter for analysis.
The study, which was recently published in Conservation Genetics, traced movements of these sheep across vast distances and difficult terrain, from the Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan to neighboring Tajikistan and China.
Genetic connectivity was detected mostly between sheep populations in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, while sheep in China were more genetically isolated.
“Genetic studies such as these are the only feasible option for answering important questions on how to best manage wide-ranging species that occur in remote locations such as the Marco Polo sheep,” said Peter Zahler, Deputy Director for WCS’s Asia Program.
He also underscored “the need for international cooperation between Afghanistan, Tajikistan, China, and even Pakistan to ensure that the world’s Marco Polo sheep populations can continue to move across these giant mountains as needed, irrespective of political boundaries.”
The article can be found at: Luikart G et al. (2011) High connectivity among argali sheep from Afghanistan and adjacent countries: Inferences from neutral and candidate gene microsatellites.
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Source: Wildlife Conservation Society; Photo: Beth Wald 2005.
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