Untitled Document
 A
study by researchers at Wildlife Conservation Society’s Afghanistan
Program found that Marco Polo sheep in the Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan
are genetically related to the
sheep in Tajikistan and China. This
means that the big-horned animals frequently travel across many borders and through very challenging terrain.
According to the results of the study, the
Marco Polo sheep populations in the mountains
of Afghanistan have genetic connections to the
sheep in both Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and China. The sheep are moving
across giant mountains to mingle with the sheep in
the neighboring countries.
Researchers had a very hard time collecting this data because the Marco Polo
sheep live in very remote parts of the mountains. Finding
their locations, collecting fecal samples, and analyzing
them was extremely difficult. Finding
out that these animals actually travel internationally through these
different countries has made the study even harder!
 With the
support of the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID)미국 국제개발처, the government
of Afghanistan is launching several measures to protect the country’s wild
places and the wildlife they contain.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)미국 야생동물보전협회 is also working
with Afghanistan’s National Environment Protection Agency (NEPA)환경
보호청 to produce the first-ever list of protected
species which will ban the
hunting of snow leopards, wolves, brown bears, and
other threatened species.
Furthermore, the WCS is coordinating with over 55 local communities
in Afghanistan to conserve wildlife and train community rangers to watch over the Marco Polo
sheep, as well as other species, to prevent poaching. |
|
|
|
