I came across this article somehow (I don't subscribe to "Smithsonian") and wonder if anyone in Montana or elsewhere has heard of it?

Yeah, it seems rather dumb to be messing with something that might change native Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep but it doesn't sound like this guy was actually turning anything loose into the wild but milking (pardon the pun, you'll know why if you read the article) his results. The "endangered" charge is that he was bringing in parts of the "endangered" Macro Polo sheep but I think they have a greater range than just one of the former USSR Central Asian republics and I'm pretty sure I've seen ads about guided trips to hunt Marco Polo sheep.

I wonder how much the U.S. government spent on this whole deal...?

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...enced-to-six-months-in-prison-180985194/

It's been in the news a bit. They caught him from forged vet papers for moving animals.

Quite a bit on YouTube about it Steve Lehto has some good breakdowns on the case if your interested

Marco Polo sheep are fairly common in northern China along the border, Manchuria and Mongolia and I would bet their common in those countries that are along that northern border, we visited Mongolia visiting some of my ex wife’s family and must have seen a few hundred of them driving around, in the village we stayed at there were several sets of horns just laying around where they had been discarded, would have liked to bring some of them home but worried about trying to get them back into the states without going to jail

Had the meat while there it’s not bad the locals hunt them regularly but I think the only place a none local can hunt them is Kyrgyatan

Neat info!! So, the idea that these things are actually truly endangered, as if they are going to disappear from the Earth, is basically garbage.

Did I ever mention that when I have to go out among my liberal colleagues, I wear my real elephant skin cowboy boots that I bought in 1987 (they've been re-soled and re-heeled at least once during that time). None of them have ever figured out to ask me what kind of leather my boots are but I will gladly tell them if they ask. Sometimes its fun to watch a liberal turn "white"

NonPCfed I have no idea what the population is but where we were the locals hunted them much like we hunt deer here, it would be my guess that they are far from endangered just like wolves here in Minnesota

They are an impressive animal and you have to see the horns to really appreciate them, my guess is that the population is relatively stable where we were and like I said we must have seen easily a couple hundred or more while there and that area is not considered a good one for them I was told several times that there were more to the north across the border in southern Russia then to the west was a small piece of China then Kyrgyzstan a short hop past that

The area is pretty wild and reminds me of norther Canada not many trees and the people there live a pretty subsistence life style and probably haven’t changed much in the last few hundred or more years, good and generous people to but I bet you wouldn’t want to (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) them off would probably end badly for you

It Was on here a while back...but it's good info^^^

Whether he never intended to release them or not. Stuff like this could potentially destroy an ecosystem. Think what the snakes and iguanas are doing to Florida