In September, a A Montana man was sentenced to six months in prison after smuggling a clone of one of the world's largest sheep species. Court documents allege that Arthur Schubarth smuggled body parts of a nearly endangered Marco Polo Argali sheep from Kyrgyzstan to the U.S. and contracted with a laboratory in 2015 to create a cloned sheep, which was later He named Montana Mountain King (MMK). Later, documents alleged that Schubarth used MMK's semen to impregnate sheep and then sold the offspring to people involved in mass hunting – each of which had some Marco Polo Argali genetics.
This is a strange case. This is possibly only the second time that an American has been prosecuted for a wildlife crime involving animal cloning. (In 2011 a man was fined $1.5 million and ordered to surrender smuggled deer as well as nearly $1 million worth of deer semen – which investigators believe that he wanted to use to clone white-tailed deer – in a case that involved the illegal purchase and transportation of the deer.)
There is another strange element to Schubarth's story: potentially dozens of MMK descendants may now be at large in the US. These sheep containing genetics from MMK are defined as controlled substances in a handful of plea agreements that were signed by men accused of purchasing sheep from Schubarth or impregnating the sheep. Had taken it to his ranch in Montana. It is unclear how many sheep are at large and what exactly happened to them.
However, legal documents provide some clues. A legal filing in the case against Schubarth alleges that in November 2018 a man delivered 26 sheep to Schubarth's farm in Montana to be inseminated with MMK semen, and a year later the same man later delivered another 48 sheep. Delivered to. In July 2020, the same documents allege, two other people drove another 43 sheep to Schubarth's farm. That's at least several dozen sheep that may have carried MMK's offspring – and each of them may have had several lambs.
The same document also alleges that one of MMK's offspring was transported from Minnesota to Schubarth's ranch in Montana in May 2019. Then in July 2020, Schubarth agreed to sell MMK's 11 grandchildren and one of MMK's children, a sheep named Montana, for a total of $13,200. Black magic, for $10,000. It is also alleged that Schubarth sold another Marco Polo hybrid sheep to a man living in South Dakota.
At least one sheep is accounted for: MMK itself. Christina Meister of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) public affairs office says the sheep were initially taken to a Zoological Association of America-accredited facility in Oregon. On October 2, MMK was flown across the country to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, New York, where she will be kept for the long term. Mister says MMK is expected to be exhibited at the zoo in mid-November. (The USFWS declined to answer other questions from WIRED.)