No. 438 Ovis Polii. — Marco Polo’s Sheep
Native Names.—Rass or Roosh on the Pamir; Kuch-kar (male), Mesh (female), in Wakhan.
Habitat.—Thian Shan mountains, north of Kashgar, and Yarkand, at elevations exceeding 9000 feet.
Description.—During winter light greyish-brown on the sides of the body, with a dark line down the middle of the back, white below. In summer the grey changes to dark brown. The horns describe a circle of about one and a quarter when viewed from the side, and point directly outwards. One of the finest specimens I have seen, which was exhibited at a meeting of the Asiatic Society in December 1879, and is now in the Indian Museum, measures over sixty-seven inches from base to tip along the curve, with a circumference at base of sixteen inches and a width from tip to tip in a straight line of fifty-three inches; one in the British Museum measures sixty-three inches, but is wider in its spread, being fifty-four inches across at the tips. Major Biddulph, who presented the head to our museum, remarked that the strength of the neck muscles must be enormous to allow of so great a weight being easily carried, and it was doubtless owing to this weight that the Ovis Polii and other great sheep that he had observed had a very erect carriage, which has also been noticed by others of the Ovis Ammon.
I have never seen this animal in the flesh, and can only therefore give what I gather from others about it, which is not much, as it is not very well known.
Size.—Stands nearly four feet at the shoulder.
In the article on Asiatic sheep by Sir Victor Brooke and Mr. B. Brooke in the ‘Proceedings of the Zoological Society’ in 1875, there is an excellent series of engravings of horns of these animals, amongst which are two of Ovis Polii. The description of the animal itself appears to be faulty, for it is stated that around the neck is a pure white mane, whereas Mr. Blanford wrote to the Society a few months later to the effect that he had examined a series of skins brought from Kashgar, and found that none possess a trace of a mane along the neck, as represented in a plate of the animal, there being some long hair behind the horns and a little between the shoulders, but none on the back of the neck. The animal has a very short tail also—so short it can hardly be seen in life. According to M. Severtzoff there is a dark line above the spinal column from the shoulders to the loins; a white anal disc surrounds the tail; this disc above is bordered by a rather dark line, but below it extends largely over the hinder parts of the thighs, shading gradually into the brown colour of the legs. The light greyish-brown of the sides shades off into white towards the belly.
He gives the following particulars concerning its habits: “It is not a regular inhabitant of the mountains, but of high situated hilly plains, where Festuca, Artemisia, and even Salsolæ form its principal food. It only takes to the mountains for purposes of concealment, avoiding even then the more rocky localities. It keeps to the same localities summer and winter. Its speed is very great, but the difficulty in overtaking wounded specimens may be partly attributed to the distressing effect of the rarefied air upon the horses, which has apparently no effect whatever on the sheep. The weight of an old specimen killed and gralloched by M. Severtzoff was too much for a strong mountain camel, the animal requiring four hours to do four versts (2·6 miles), and being obliged to lie down several times during the journey. He reckons the entire weight of a male Ovis Polii to be not less than 16 or 17 poods (576 to 612 lbs.); the head and horns alone weigh over two poods (72 lbs.).”[33]
33 It must be remembered that at such great elevations a camel is unable to bear a very heavy load.
I have before me a beautiful photograph by Mr. Oscar Malitte, of Dehra Doon, of a very large skull of this sheep, with the measurements given. The photograph is an excellent one of a magnificent head, and I should say if the measurements have been correctly made, that the horns are the longest, though not the thickest, on record.
The dimensions given are as follows:—
| Inches. | |
| Round the curve | 73 |
| From tip to tip | 48 |
| Girth at base | 14 |
The next largest head to this is the very fine one in the Indian Museum, presented by Major Biddulph:—
| Inches. | |
| Round the curve | 67 |
| From tip to tip | 53 |
| Girth at base | 16 |
There is another in the British Museum:—
| Inches. | |
| Round the curve | 63 |
| From tip to tip | 54 |
| Girth at base | 16 |
From the above measurements it will be seen that the horns in the photograph before me are of greater length, but not so massive as the other two. They are also more compressed in their curvature than the others, and so the tip to tip measurement is less. The skull appears to be that of a very old animal; the horns are quite joined at the base, and from the incrustation on the bones I should say it had been picked up, and was not a shikar trophy. Anyhow it is a valuable specimen.[34]
34 See notes to Ovis Polii in Appendix C.
No. 439. Ovis Hodgsoni.
The Argali or Ovis Ammon of Thibet.
Native Names.—Hyan, Nuan, Nyan, Niar, Nyaud or Gnow.
Habitat.—The Thibetan Himalayas at 15,000 feet and upwards.
Description.—The following description was given by a correspondent of the Civil and Military Gazette in the issue of the 21st October, 1880: “The male dark earthy brown above, lighter below; rump lighter coloured; tail one inch; white ruff of long hairs on throat and chin; hair of body short, brittle, and close-set. The female darker coloured than the male, and may often be distinguished, when too far to see the horns, by the dark hue of the neck.” Both male and female are horned; the horns of the former are very large, some are reported as being as much as four feet long, and 22 inches in circumference at the base. Dr. Jerdon quotes Colonel Markham in giving 24 inches as the circumference of one pair. They are deeply rugose, triangular, and compressed, deeper than broad at the base, forming a bold sweep of about four-fifths of a circle, the points turning outwards, and ending obtusely. The horns of the female are mentioned by various writers as being from 18 to 22 inches, slightly curved; but the correspondent of the Civil and Military Gazette above quoted gives 24 inches as his experience.
Size.—From 10 to 12 hands, sometimes an inch over.
A very interesting account of this animal, with a good photograph of the head, is given in Kinloch’s ‘Large Game-shooting in Thibet and the North-west.’ He says: “In winter the Ovis Ammon inhabits the lower and more sheltered valleys, where the snow does not lie in any great quantity. As summer advances, the males separate from the females, and betake themselves to higher and more secluded places. They appear to be particular in their choice of a locality, repairing year after year to the same places, where they may always be found, and entirely neglecting other hills which apparently possess equal advantages as regards pasturage and water. Without a knowledge of their haunts a sportsman might wander for days and never meet with old rams, although perhaps never very far from them. I have myself experienced this, having hunted for days over likely ground without seeing even the track of a ram, and afterwards, under the guidance of an intelligent Tartar, found plenty of them on exactly similar ground a mile or two from where I had been. The flesh of the Ovis Ammon, like that of all the Thibetan ruminants, is excellent; it is always tender, even on the day it is killed, and of very good flavour, possibly caused by the aromatic herbs which constitute so large a portion of the scanty vegetation of those arid regions.
“No animal is more wary than the Ovis Ammon, and this, combined with the open nature of the ground which it usually inhabits, renders it perhaps the most difficult of all beasts to approach. It is however, of course, sometimes found on ground where it can be stalked, but even then it is most difficult to obtain a quiet shot, as the instant one’s head is raised one of the herd is nearly sure to give the alarm, and one only gets a running shot.
“Ovis Ammon shooting requires a great deal of patience. In the first place, unless the sportsman has very good information regarding the ground, he may wander for days before he discovers the haunts of the old rams; and, secondly, he may find them on ground where it is hopeless to approach them. In the latter case all that can be done is to wait, watch them until they move to better ground, and if they will not do this the same day, they must be left till the next. Sooner or later they will move to ground where they can be stalked, and then, if proper care is exercised, they are not much more difficult to get near than other animals; but the greatest precautions must be taken to prevent being seen before one fires. Some men may think this sort of shooting too troublesome, and resort to driving, but this is very uncertain work, and frightens the animals away, when, by the exercise of patience, a quiet shot might be obtained.”
A writer in The Asian, whose ‘Sportsman’s Guide to Kashmir and Ladakh’ contains most valuable information, writes thus in the issue of August 30, 1881, of the keen sense of smell possessed by this animal, and I take the liberty of quoting a paragraph:—
“The Ovis Ammon is possessed of the sense of smell to a remarkable degree, and, as every one who has stalked in Ladakh is aware, the wind is treacherous. If the stalker feels a puff of wind on his back when within 700 or 800 yards of the game, he well knows that it is ‘all up.’ On the tops of the mountains and in the vicinity of glaciers these puffs of wind are of frequent occurrence; often they will only last for a few seconds, but that is sufficiently long to ruin the chance of getting a shot at the Ovis. Except for this one fact, we cannot admit that the nyan is harder to approach than any other hill sheep.”
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