Strategy for the meeting of the Altai mountain sheep meeting in Russia – Siberia |
Barnaul. January 16th. INTERFAX-SIBERIA – The strategy of assigning the Altai mountain sheep argali to the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology at the end of December 2022 will give ecologists an action plan for the population of this animal, Tatyana Ivanitskaya, spokeswoman for the WWF Russia representative office in the Altai-Sayan Ecoregion, reports.
“The strategy for taking argali was prepared at the initiative of the World Universal Wildlife in partnership with significant people who have been studying and conserving the Altai mountain sheep in Altai and Tuva for many years. Thanks to the large number of votes of the Sailyugemsky National Park, the strengthening of anti-poaching raids, and work with the population of the argali group, only on the Sailyugemsk ridge has increased significantly to 2000-2500 individuals in 2022,” says Alexander Karnaukhov, senior project coordinator for the World Wildlife Fund.
The Altai mountain sheep is listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation as a “vulnerable” species. In Russia, argali lives in the regions bordering Mongolia in the Republics of Altai and Tuva: on the Saylyugem, Chikhachev, Mongun-Taiga, Tsagan-Shibetu ridges. There are specially protected natural areas: the Saylyugemsky National Park, the Altaisky and Ubsunur Hollow nature reserves, and the Ukok Plateau Study Zone park. Hunting for argali, banned in the country since 1934, but poaching for meat and horns continues.
Argali is a migratory species; in winter, mountain sheep migrate to Mongolia, where the snow level is lower by summer and return to Russia. The protection of such species is impossible without the cooperation of the two countries. In 2018, Russia and Mongolia signed a monitoring program for the Altai mountain sheep (argali) in the transboundary monitoring zone.
The World Wildlife Fund contains statistics, which involves taking into account the number and condition of the argali population, environmental education and anti-poaching activities. At the end of March, with the support of the Foundation on the basis of the Sailyugemsky National Park in support of the Altai International Meeting on the development of an action plan for the conservation of the argali species, which is part of the strategic meeting.