Revisiting the Conservation Challenges of Wild Argali (Ovis ammon ammon L.) in the Altai Mountain-Steppe under Climate and Anthropogenic Pressures

Abstract

The high-mountain steppes of South-eastern Altai are a valuable resource for pastoralism—almost the only possible type of economic activity in these places—and the conservation of near threatened species, such as the argali. Argali are the largest and most vulnerable wild sheep (Ovis ammon ammon L.), and are listed in the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation and on the IUCN Red List. The argali is also important in the food chain of another rare and protected species, the snow leopard. This paper presents the results of research into the productivity of argali’s high-mountain steppes habitation in various parts of the Sailugem Ridge, and assesses their pasture degradation. We predict how observed declining pasture productivity due to anthropogenic and climate pressure, as well as argali grazing, will threaten their survival. We propose special measures to reduce the impact of the argali population on the degradation of current pastures, while improving argali conservation in other areas of South-eastern Altai and adjacent territories where the species previously existed.

Keywords

Altai Mountains / Ovis ammon ammon / Argali / Steppe vegetation / Pasture degradation / Climate change / Conservation strategy

Acknowledgments

This study has partly carried out using research equipment of the Unique Research Installation “System of experimental bases located along the latitudinal gradient” TSU. The study is a contribution to the Siberian Environmental Change Network (SECNet) and the authors are grateful to SECNet partners for their cooperation.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: T.V.C. and I.V.V.; methodology: I.V.V., I.I.V.; software: I.V.V., I.I.V.; validation, T.V.C., I.V.V.; formal analysis: T.V.C., I.V.V., O.M.S.; investigation: T.V.C., I.V.V., I.I.V., M.V.O. and O.M.S.; resources: I.V.V., O.M.S.; data curation: I.V.V., T.V.C.; writing—original draft preparation: I.V.V., I.I.V., M.V.O. and O.M.S.; writing—review and editing, T.V.C., I.V.V. and O.M.S.; visualization: I.V.V., I.I.V.; supervision: T.V.C.; project administration: I.V.V. and O.M.S.; funding acquisition: O.M.S. All the authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Ethics Statement

Ethics approval was not required for this study, as it used publicly available official statistical data and did not involve any clinical study or animal study.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions are included in the article. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding authors.

Funding

This study did not get external financial support, it was supported by the Tomsk State University Program (“Priority-2030”), project No. RD 2.2.1.24 RG.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article and there is no conflict of interest between the academic funding organization and other interests.

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