The Animal World, A Book of Natural History: Young Folks' Treasury (Volume V)Wood, Theodore
General
The Animal World, A Book of Natural History: Young Folks' Treasury (Volume V)
Wood, Theodore
Animals -- Juvenile literature
This animal is found in Siberia and Mongolia, and also in Tibet. It is
the largest of all living wild sheep, and is about as big as a large
donkey, and has enormous twisted and wrinkled horns, which are sometimes
as much as four feet long, and nineteen inches round at the base. The
male Tibetan argali has a ruff on the throat. The usual color is a stony
gray, mingled with white in summer in the case of the old males.
The argali rams are very fond of fighting one another, and such fierce
conflicts take place that sometimes their horns are broken short off,
and left lying upon the ground. And it will give you some idea of the
size of these horns when we tell you that more than once a fox has been
found lying fast asleep in one of them!
The argali is a mountain-loving animal, seldom seen at a lower level
than twelve or thirteen thousand feet even in winter, while in summer it
ascends much higher. It is a most difficult creature to approach, for it
lives in small flocks, which always post a sentry to keep careful watch
while they are feeding. At the slightest sign of danger the alert
sentinel gives the alarm and a moment later the animals are dispersing
in all directions, scrambling so actively over rocks and up and down
precipices that is it quite impossible to follow them.
It has sometimes been said that when the argali leaps from a height it
alights on its horns, which break the force of its fall. But this
statement seems to be quite untrue.
Writing of the argali of Southern Siberia, the naturalist Brehm says
that when the Tartars want mutton an argali-hunt is organized. The
Tartar hunters advance on their horses at intervals of 200 or 300 yards,
and when the sheep are started generally manage, by riding, shooting,
coursing them with dogs, and shouting, to bewilder, shoot, or capture
several.
THE GULJAR, OR MARCO POLO'S SHEEP
On the high plateau of the Pamirs and the adjacent districts Marco
Polo's sheep is found. The rams are only slightly less in size than the
Siberian argali; the hair is longer than in that species, and the horns
are thinner and more slender and extend farther in an outward direction.
An adult ram may weigh three hundred pounds. The first description of
this sheep was given by the old traveler whose name it now bears. He
said that on the Pamir plateau wild animals were met with in large
numbers, particularly a sheep of great size, having horns three, four,
and even six palms in length; and that the shepherds (hunters?) formed
ladles and vessels from them. In the Pamirs Marco Polo's sheep is seldom
found at less than 11,000 or 12,000 feet above the sea. In the Tian-Shan
Mountains it is said to descend to 2,000 or 3,000 feet. They prefer the
hilly, grassy plains, and only seek the hills for safety. On the Pamirs
they are said to be very numerous in places, one hunter stating that he
saw in one day not less than six hundred head.
THE BIGHORN SHEEP OF AMERICA AND KAMCHATKA
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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