Current SCI all time record: Score 127 1/8 - Pakistan, Salt Mountains - 12/85

Description: Similar to the Marco Polo Sheep in general body proportions and colouring but averaging considerably smaller in size with shorter, less massive horns. The face is generally grayish, the long slender legs and belly are creamy-white and the body fur is a reddish-grey colour. There is no extensive white area in the caudal region. The tail is always the same color as the dorsal hair and lacks any longer hair or terminal tuft. The sub-orbital glands are deep and conspicuous often exuding a viscous substance which mats the hair. The iris is pale yellowish-grey with the retina contracting to a horizontal slot.

Adult rams develop a conspicuous chest ruff of long straight coarse hairs which starts at the angle of the jaws and terminates abruptly between the forelegs. This ruff is predominantly white in the throat region and black as it extends down to the sternum. In summer moult this ruff is much shorter but still conspicuous. Females have slender upward curving horns about 12.7cm(5in) long. The horns in mature of mature rams are comparatively slender and angular when contrasted with other wild sheep species but they describe a very symmetrical arc when viewed from the side and curve out widely from the body, so that it is a striking looking animal especially if encountered in the first rays of the morning sun, when its coat glows an almost pinkish-red color and the black chest-ruff stands out in sharp contrast. Older rams also develop traces of a grayish-white saddle mark in the winter coat.

O.vignei.vignei body fur tends to be more grayish in winter and less red. The chest ruff is comparatively short with black hairs predominating. The horns turn markedly inwards at their tips and often the wrinkles or corrugations are rather shallow and indistinct. O.vignei.cycloceros tends to have a longer, more luxuriantly developed neck ruff. The body fur is reddish and the saddle mark in males is generally very indistinct or lacking. The rams have horns which often develop more than a complete arc when viewed from the side with the tips bending slightly outwards. O.vigei. punjabiensis tend to be smaller and stockier in build compared with the Afghan sub-species and mature rams develop a conspicuous saddle mark in the form of a vertical band of mixed black and white hairs. The Punjab urial often has horns which are more massive at their base than the Afghan population but these never curve round in more than a complete arc.

Other Common Names:

Size:

Range: Pakistan; November - March.

Natural History: Like the Marco Polo sheep, Urial are gregarious and the biggest herds consist of associations of female with their followers and immature males. Feeding activity is confined to the early morning and evening in the summer months, often commencing well before dawn. During the day they rest, usually under an overhanging bush or rock where they are well concealed. Their sight, hearing and sense of smell are all acutely developed. They are excessively wary, depending upon early detection of approaching danger and flight for their survival.

Their preferred food is grasses. They will in time of fodder scarcity, browse the leaves of Acacia Modesta and sometimes pink mucilaginous fruits.

Hunting Characteristics: