Wolverine
The wolverine, Gulo gulo referred to as the glutton, skunk bear, or quickhatch, is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a stocky and muscular carnivore, more resembling a small bear than other mustelids. A solitary animal, it has a reputation for ferocity and strength out of proportion to its size, with the documented ability to kill prey many times larger than itself; the wolverine is found in remote reaches of the Northern boreal forests and subarctic and alpine tundra of the Northern Hemisphere, with the greatest numbers in Northern Canada, the American state of Alaska, the mainland Nordic countries of Europe, throughout western Russia and Siberia. Its population has declined since the 19th century owing to trapping, range reduction and habitat fragmentation; the wolverine is now absent from the southern end of its European range. Genetic evidence suggests that the wolverine is most related to the tayra and martens, all of which shared a Eurasian ancestor. Within the Gulo gulo species, a clear separation occurs between two subspecies: the Old World form Gulo gulo gulo and the New World form G. g. luscus.
Some authors had described as many as four additional North American subspecies, including ones limited to Vancouver Island and the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. However, the most accepted taxonomy recognizes either the two continental subspecies or G. gulo as a single Holarctic taxon. Compiled genetic evidence suggests most of North America's wolverines are descended from a single source originating from Beringia during the last glaciation and expanding thereafter, though considerable uncertainty to this conclusion is due to the difficulty of collecting samples in the depleted southern extent of the range. Anatomically, the wolverine is muscular animal. With short legs and rounded head, small eyes and short rounded ears, it more resembles a bear than it does other mustelids. Though its legs are short, its large, five-toed paws with crampon-like claws and plantigrade posture enable them to climb up and over steep cliffs and snow-covered peaks with relative ease; the adult wolverine is about the size of a medium dog, with a length ranging from 65–107 cm, a tail of 17–26 cm, a weight of 5.5–25 kg, though exceptionally large males can weigh up to 32 kg.
Another outsized specimen was reported to scale 35 kg. The males can be twice the females' weight. According to some sources, Eurasian wolverines are claimed to be larger and heavier than North American with average weights in excess of 20 kg but this may refer more to areas such as Siberia, as data from European wolverines shows they are around the same size as their American counterparts; the average weight of female wolverines from a study in the Northwest territories of Canada was 10.1 kg and that of males 15.3 kg. In a study from Alaska, the median weight of ten males was 16.7 kg while the average of two females was 9.6 kg. In Ontario, the mean weight of males and females was 9.9 kg. The average weights of wolverines were notably lower in a study from the Yukon, averaging 7.3 kg in females and 11.3 kg in males because these animals from a "harvest population" had low fat deposits. In Finland, the average weight was claimed as 11 to 12.6 kg. The average weight of male and female wolverines from Norway was listed as 10 kg.
Shoulder height is reported from 30 to 45 cm. It is the largest of terrestrial mustelids. Wolverines have thick, oily fur, hydrophobic, making it resistant to frost; this has led to its traditional popularity among hunters and trappers as a lining in jackets and parkas in Arctic conditions. A light-silvery facial mask is distinct in some individuals, a pale buff stripe runs laterally from the shoulders along the side and crossing the rump just above a 25–35 cm bushy tail; some individuals display prominent white hair patches on their chests. Like many other mustelids, it has potent anal scent glands used for marking territory and sexual signaling; the pungent odor has given rise to the nicknames "skunk bear" and "nasty cat." Wolverines, like other mustelids, possess a special upper molar in the back of the mouth, rotated 90 degrees, towards the inside of the mouth. This special characteristic allows wolverines to tear off meat from prey or carrion, frozen solid. Wolverines are considered to be scavengers.
A majority of the wolverine's sustenance is derived from carrion, on which it depends exclusively in winter and early spring. Wolverines may find carrion themselves, feed on it after the predator has finished, or take it from another predator. Wolverines are known to follow wolf and lynx trails, purportedly with the intent of scavenging the remains of their kills. Whether eating live prey or carrion, the wolverine's feeding style appears voracious, leading to the nickname of "glutton". However, this feeding style is believed to be an adaptation to food scarcity in winter; the wolverine is a powerful and versatile predator. Prey consists of small to medium-sized mammal
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan the Republic of Kazakhstan, is the world's largest landlocked country, the ninth largest in the world, with an area of 2,724,900 square kilometres. It is a transcontinental country located in Asia. Kazakhstan is the dominant nation of Central Asia economically, generating 60% of the region's GDP through its oil and gas industry, it has vast mineral resources. Kazakhstan is a democratic, unitary, constitutional republic with a diverse cultural heritage. Kazakhstan shares borders with Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, adjoins a large part of the Caspian Sea; the terrain of Kazakhstan includes flatlands, taiga, rock canyons, deltas, snow-capped mountains, deserts. Kazakhstan has an estimated 18.3 million people as of 2018. Given its large land area, its population density is among the lowest, at less than 6 people per square kilometre; the capital is Astana, where it was moved in 1997 from the country's largest city. The territory of Kazakhstan has been inhabited by groups included the nomadic groups and empires.
In antiquity, the nomadic Scythians have inhabited the land and the Persian Achaemenid Empire expanded towards the southern territory of the modern country. Turkic nomads who trace their ancestry to many Turkic states such as Turkic Khaganate etc have inhabited the country throughout the country's history. In the 13th century, the territory joined the Mongolian Empire under Genghis Khan. By the 16th century, the Kazakh emerged as a distinct group, divided into three jüz; the Russians began advancing into the Kazakh steppe in the 18th century, by the mid-19th century, they nominally ruled all of Kazakhstan as part of the Russian Empire. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, subsequent civil war, the territory of Kazakhstan was reorganised several times. In 1936, it was made part of the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan was the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Nursultan Nazarbayev, the first President of Kazakhstan, was characterized as an authoritarian, his government was accused of numerous human rights violations, including suppression of dissent and censorship of the media.
Nazarbayev resigned in March 2019, with Senate Chairman Kassym-Jomart Tokayev taking office as Interim President. Kazakhstan has worked to develop its economy its dominant hydrocarbon industry. Human Rights Watch says that "Kazakhstan restricts freedom of assembly and religion", other human rights organisations describe Kazakhstan's human rights situation as poor. Kazakhstan's 131 ethnicities include Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Germans and Uyghurs. Islam is the religion of about 70% of the population, with Christianity practised by 26%. Kazakhstan allows freedom of religion, but religious leaders who oppose the government are suppressed; the Kazakh language is the state language, Russian has equal official status for all levels of administrative and institutional purposes. Kazakhstan is a member of the United Nations, WTO, CIS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Eurasian Economic Union, CSTO, OSCE, OIC, TURKSOY; the name "Kazakh" comes from the ancient Turkic word qaz, "to wander", reflecting the Kazakhs' nomadic culture.
The name "Cossack" is of the same origin. The Persian suffix -stan means "land" or "place of", so Kazakhstan can be translated as "land of the wanderers". Though traditionally referring only to ethnic Kazakhs, including those living in China, Turkey and other neighbouring countries, the term "Kazakh" is being used to refer to any inhabitant of Kazakhstan, including non-Kazakhs. Kazakhstan has been inhabited since the Paleolithic. Pastoralism developed during the Neolithic as the region's climate and terrain are best suited for a nomadic lifestyle; the Kazakh territory was a key constituent of the Eurasian Steppe route, the ancestor of the terrestrial Silk Roads. Archaeologists believe. During recent prehistoric times Central Asia was inhabited by groups like the Proto-Indo-European Afanasievo culture early Indo-Iranians cultures such as Andronovo, Indo-Iranians such as the Saka and Massagetae. Other groups included the nomadic Scythians and the Persian Achaemenid Empire in the southern territory of the modern country.
In 329 BC, Alexander the Great and his Macedonian army fought in the Battle of Jaxartes against the Scythians along the Jaxartes River, now known as the Syr Darya along the southern border of modern Kazakhstan. The Cuman entered the steppes of modern-day Kazakhstan around the early 11th century, where they joined with the Kipchak and established the vast Cuman-Kipchak confederation. While ancient cities Taraz and Hazrat-e Turkestan had long served as important way-stations along the Silk Road connecting Asia and Europe, true political consolidation began only with the Mongol rule of the early 13th century. Under the Mongol Empire, the largest in world history, administrative districts were established; these came under the rule of the emergent Kazakh Khanate. Throughout this period, traditional nomadic life and a livestock-
Pamir Mountains
The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range in Central Asia, at the junction of the Himalayas with the Tian Shan, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and Hindu Raj ranges. They are among the world’s highest mountains; the Pamir Mountains lie in the Gorno-Badakhshan province of Tajikistan. To the north, they join the Tian Shan mountains along the Alay Valley of Kyrgyzstan. To the south, they border the Hindu Kush mountains along Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor. To the east, they extend to the range that includes China's Kongur Tagh, in the "Eastern Pamirs", separated by the Yarkand valley from the Kunlun Mountains. Since Victorian times, they have been known as the "Roof of the World" a translation from Persian. In other languages they are called: Kyrgyz Памир тоолору, Pamir Tooloru, پامىر توولورۇ. Rešte Kuhhā-ye Pāmir. Rishta Köhhoyi Pomir; the name "Pamir" is used more in Modern Chinese and loaned as simplified Chinese: 帕米尔. According to Middleton and Thomas, "pamir" is a geological term. A pamir is a flat plateau or U-shaped valley surrounded by mountains.
It forms when a ice field melts leaving a rocky plain. A pamir lasts until erosion cuts down normal valleys; this type of terrain is found in the east and north of the Wakhan, the east and south of Gorno-Badakhshan, as opposed to the valleys and gorges of the west. Pamirs are used for summer pasture; the Great Pamir is around Lake Zorkul. The Little Pamir is east of this in the far east of Wakhan; the Taghdumbash Pamir is between the Wakhan west of the Karakoram Highway. The Alichur Pamir is around Yashil Kul on the Gunt River; the Sarez Pamir is around the town of Murghab. The Khargush Pamir is south of Lake Karakul. There are several others; the Pamir River is in the south-west of the Pamirs. The three highest mountains in the Pamirs core are 7,495 m. In the Eastern Pamirs, China's Kongur Tagh is the highest at 7,649 m. Among the significant peaks of the Pamir Mountains are the following: Remark: The summits of the Kongur and Muztagata Group are in some sources counted as part of the Kunlun, which would make Pik Ismoil Somoni the highest summit of the Pamir.
There are many glaciers in the Pamir Mountains, including the 77 km long Fedchenko Glacier, the longest in the former USSR and the longest glacier outside the polar regions. 12,500 km² of the Pamirs are glaciated. Glaciers in the Southern Pamirs are retreating rapidly. Ten percent of annual runoff is supposed to originate from retreating glaciers in the Southern Pamirs. In the North-Western Pamirs, glaciers have stable mass balances. Covered in snow throughout the year, the Pamirs have long and bitterly cold winters, short, cool summers. Annual precipitation is about 130 mm; the East-Pamir, in the centre of which the massifs of Mustagh Ata and Kongur Tagh are situated, shows from the western margin of the Tarim Basin an east-west extension of c. 200 km. Its north-south extension from King Ata Tagh up to the northwest Kunlun foothills amounts to c.170 km. Whilst the up to 21 km long current valley glaciers are restricted to mountain massifs exceeding 5600 m in height, during the last glacial period the glacier ice covered the high plateau with its set-up highland relief, continuing west of Mustagh Ata and Kongur.
From this glacier area an outlet glacier has flowed down to the north-east through the Gez valley up to c.1850 m asl and thus as far as to the margin of the Tarim basin. This outlet glacier received inflow from the Kaiayayilak glacier from the Kongur north flank. From the north-adjacent Kara Bak Tor massif, the Oytag valley glacier in the same exposition flowed down up to c. 1850 m asl. At glacial times the glacier snowline as altitude limit between glacier nourishing area and ablation zone, was about 820 to 1250 metres lower than it is today. Under the condition of comparable proportions of precipitation there results from this a glacial depression of temperature of at least 5 to 7.5 °C. Coal is mined in the west, though sheep herding in upper meadowlands is the primary source of income for the region; this section is based on the book by R. Middleton and H. Thomas The lapis lazuli found in Egyptian tombs is thought to come from the Pamir area in Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. About 138 BC Zhang Qian reached the Fergana Valley northwest of the Pamirs.
Ptolemy vaguely describes a trade route through the area. From about 600 AD, Buddhist pilgrims travelled on both sides of the Pamirs to reach India from China. In 747 a Tang army was on the Wakhan River. There are various Chinese reports. Marco Polo may have travelled along the Panj River. In 1602 Bento de Goes left a meager report on the Pamirs. In 1838 Lieutenant John Wood reached the headwaters of the Pamir River. From about 1868 to 1880, a number of Indians in the British service secretly explored the Panj area. In 1873 the British and Russians agreed to an Afgh
Himalayas
The Himalayas, or Himalaya, form a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has many including the highest, Mount Everest; the Himalayas include over fifty mountains exceeding 7,200 m in elevation, including ten of the fourteen 8,000-metre peaks. By contrast, the highest peak outside Asia is 6,961 m tall. Lifted by the subduction of the Indian tectonic plate under the Eurasian Plate, the Himalayan mountain range runs west-northwest to east-southeast in an arc 2,400 km long, its western anchor, Nanga Parbat, lies just south of the northernmost bend of Indus river. Its eastern anchor, Namcha Barwa, is just west of the great bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo River; the Himalayan range is bordered on the northwest by the Hindu Kush ranges. To the north, the chain is separated from the Tibetan Plateau by a 50–60 km wide tectonic valley called the Indus-Tsangpo Suture. Towards the south the arc of the Himalaya is ringed by the low Indo-Gangetic Plain.
The range varies in width from 350 km in the west to 150 km in the east. The Himalayas are distinct from the other great ranges of central Asia, although sometimes the term'Himalaya' is loosely used to include the Karakoram and some of the other ranges; the Himalayas are inhabited by 52.7 million people, are spread across five countries: Nepal, Bhutan and Pakistan. Some of the world's major rivers – the Indus, the Ganges and the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra – rise in the Himalayas, their combined drainage basin is home to 600 million people; the Himalayas have a profound effect on the climate of the region, helping to keep the monsoon rains on the Indian plain and limiting rainfall on the Tibetan plateau. The Himalayas have profoundly shaped the cultures of the Indian subcontinent; the name of the range derives from himá and ā-laya. They are now known as the "Himalaya Mountains" shortened to the "Himalayas", they were described in the singular as the Himalaya. This was previously transcribed Himmaleh, as in Emily Dickinson's poetry and Henry David Thoreau's essays.
The mountains are known as the Himālaya in Nepali and Hindi, the Himalaya or'The Land of Snow' in Tibetan, the Hamaleh Mountain Range in Urdu and the Ximalaya Mountain Range in Chinese. In the middle of the great curve of the Himalayan mountains lie the 8,000 m peaks of Dhaulagiri and Annapurna in Nepal, separated by the Kali Gandaki Gorge; the gorge splits the Himalayas into Western and Eastern sections both ecologically and orographically – the pass at the head of the Kali Gandaki, the Kora La is the lowest point on the ridgeline between Everest and K2. To the east of Annapurna are the 8,000 m peaks of Manaslu and across the border in Tibet, Shishapangma. To the south of these lies Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal and the largest city in the Himalayas. East of the Kathmandu Valley lies valley of the Bhote/Sun Kosi river which rises in Tibet and provides the main overland route between Nepal and China – the Araniko Highway/China National Highway 318. Further east is the Mahalangur Himal with four of the world's six highest mountains, including the highest: Cho Oyu, Everest and Makalu.
The Khumbu region, popular for trekking, is found here on the south-western approaches to Everest. The Arun river drains the northern slopes of these mountains, before turning south and flowing through the range to the east of Makalu. In the far east of Nepal, the Himalayas rise to the Kanchenjunga massif on the border with India, the third highest mountain in the world, the most easterly 8,000 m summit and the highest point of India; the eastern side of Kanchenjunga is in the Indian state of Sikkim. An independent Kingdom, it lies on the main route from India to Lhasa, which passes over the Nathu La pass into Tibet. East of Sikkim lies the ancient Buddhist Kingdom of Bhutan; the highest mountain in Bhutan is Gangkhar Puensum, a strong candidate for the highest unclimbed mountain in the world. The Himalayas here are becoming rugged with forested steep valleys; the Himalayas continue, turning northeast, through the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh as well as Tibet, before reaching their easterly conclusion in the peak of Namche Barwa, situated in Tibet inside the great bend of the Yarlang Tsangpo river.
On the other side of the Tsangpo, to the east, are the Kangri Garpo mountains. The high mountains to the north of the Tsangpo including Gyala Peri, are sometimes included in the Himalayas. Going west from Dhaulagiri, Western Nepal is somewhat remote and lacks major high mountains, but is home to Rara Lake, the largest lake in Nepal; the Karnali River cuts through the center of the region. Further west, the border with India follows the Sarda River and provides a trade route into China, where on the Tibetan plateau lies the high peak of Gurla Mandhata. Just across Lake Manasarovar from this lies the sacred Mount Kailash, which stands close to the source of the four main rivers of Himalayas and is revered in Hinduism, Sufism and Bonpo. In the newly created Indian state of Uttarkhand, the Himalayas rise again as the Garhwal Himalayas with the high peaks of Nanda Devi and Kamet; the state is an important pilgrimage destination, with
Domestic yak
The domestic yak is a long-haired domesticated bovid found throughout the Himalayan region of the Indian subcontinent, the Tibetan Plateau and as far north as Mongolia and Russia. It is descended from the wild yak; the English word "yak" is a loan originating from Tibetan: Wylie: g.yag. In Tibetan and Balti it refers only to the male of the species, the female being called Tibetan: འབྲི་, Wylie:'bri, or g.nag Tibetan: གནག in Tibetan and Tibetan: ཧཡག་མོ་, Wylie: hYag-mo in Balti. In English, as in most other languages that have borrowed the word, "yak" is used for both sexes, with "bull" or "cow" referring to each sex separately. Yaks are therefore related to cattle. Mitochondrial DNA analyses to determine the evolutionary history of yaks have been inconclusive; the yak may have diverged from cattle at any point between one and five million years ago, there is some suggestion that it may be more related to bison than to the other members of its designated genus. Apparent close fossil relatives of the yak, such as Bos baikalensis, have been found in eastern Russia, suggesting a possible route by which yak-like ancestors of the modern American bison could have entered the Americas.
The species was designated as Bos grunniens by Linnaeus in 1766, but this name is now only considered to refer to the domesticated form of the animal, with Bos mutus being the preferred name for the wild species. Although some authors still consider the wild yak to be a subspecies, Bos grunniens mutus, the ICZN made an official ruling in 2003 permitting the use of the name Bos mutus for wild yaks, this is now the more common usage. Except where the wild yak is considered as a subspecies of Bos grunniens, there are no recognised subspecies of yak. Yaks are built animals with a bulky frame, sturdy legs, rounded cloven hooves, dense, long fur that hangs down lower than the belly. While wild yaks are dark, blackish to brown in colouration, domestic yaks can be quite variable in colour having patches of rusty brown and cream, they have small ears and a wide forehead, with smooth horns that are dark in colour. In males, the horns sweep out from the sides of the head, curve forward, they range from 48 to 99 cm in length.
The horns of females are smaller, only 27 to 64 cm in length, have a more upright shape. Both sexes have a short neck with a pronounced hump over the shoulders, although this is larger and more visible in males. Males weigh 350 to 585 kg, females weigh 225 to 255 kg. Wild yaks can be heavier, bulls reaching weights of up to 1,000 kilograms. Depending on the breed, domestic yak males are 111–138 centimetres high at the withers, while females are 105–117 centimetres high at the withers. Both sexes have long shaggy hair with a dense woolly undercoat over the chest and thighs to insulate them from the cold. In bulls, this may form a long "skirt" that can reach the ground; the tail is horselike rather than tufted like the tails of cattle or bison. Domesticated yaks have a wide range of coat colours, with some individuals being white, brown, roan or piebald; the udder in females and the scrotum in males are hairy, as protection against the cold. Females have four teats. Yaks grunt and, unlike cattle, are not known to produce the characteristic bovine lowing sound, which inspired the scientific name of the domestic yak variant, Bos grunniens.
Nikolay Przhevalsky named the wild variant Bos mutus. Yak physiology is well adapted to high altitudes, having larger lungs and heart than cattle found at lower altitudes, as well as greater capacity for transporting oxygen through their blood due to the persistence of foetal haemoglobin throughout life. Conversely, yaks have trouble thriving at lower altitudes, are prone to suffering from heat exhaustion above about 15 °C. Further adaptations to the cold include a thick layer of subcutaneous fat, an complete lack of functional sweat glands. Compared with domestic cattle, the rumen of yaks is unusually large, relative to the omasum; this allows them to consume greater quantities of low-quality food at a time, to ferment it longer so as to extract more nutrients. Yak consume the equivalent of 1% of their body weight daily while cattle require 3% to maintain condition. Contrary to popular belief and their manure have little to no detectable odour when maintained appropriately in pastures or paddocks with adequate access to forage and water.
Yak's wool is odour resistant. Yaks mate in the summer between July and September, depending on the local environment. For the remainder of the year, many bulls wander in small bachelor groups away from the large herds, but, as the rut approaches, they become aggressive and fight among each other to establish dominance. In addition to non-violent threat displays and scraping the ground with their horns, bull yaks compete more directly charging at each other with heads lowered or sparring with their horns. Like bison, but unlike cattle, males wallow in dry soil during the rut while scent-marking with urine or dung. Females enter oestrus up to four times a year, females are receptive only for a few hours in each cycle. Gestation lasts between 257 and 270 days, so that the young are born between May and June, results in the birth of a single calf; the cow finds a secluded spot to give birth, but the calf is able to walk within about ten minutes of birth
Bighorn sheep
The bighorn sheep is a species of sheep native to North America. The species is aptly named for its large horns. A pair of horns might weigh up to 14 kg. Recent genetic testing indicates three distinct subspecies of Ovis canadensis, one of, endangered: O. c. sierrae. Sheep crossed to North America over the Bering land bridge from Siberia. By 1900, the population had crashed to several thousand, due to diseases introduced through European livestock and overhunting. Ovis canadensis is one of three species of mountain sheep in North Siberia. Wild sheep crossed the Bering land bridge from Siberia into Alaska during the Pleistocene and subsequently spread through western North America as far south as Baja California and northwestern mainland Mexico. Divergence from their closest Asian ancestor occurred about 600,000 years ago. In North America, wild sheep diverged into two extant species—Dall sheep, which occupy Alaska and northwestern Canada, bighorn sheep, which range from southwestern Canada to Mexico.
However, the status of these species is questionable given that hybridization has occurred between them in their recent evolutionary history. In 1940, Ian McTaggart-Cowan split the species into seven subspecies, with the first three being mountain bighorns and the last four being desert bighorns: Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, O. c. canadensis, found from British Columbia to Arizona. Badlands bighorn sheep or Audubon's bighorn sheep, O. c. auduboni, occurred in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Nebraska. This subspecies has been extinct since 1925. California bighorn sheep, O. c. californiana, found from British Columbia south to California and east to North Dakota. The definition of this subspecies has been updated. Nelson's bighorn sheep, O. c. nelsoni, the most common desert bighorn sheep, ranges from California through Arizona. Mexican bighorn sheep, O. c. mexicana, ranges from Arizona and New Mexico south to Sonora and Chihuahua. Peninsular bighorn sheep O. c. cremnobates, occur in the Peninsular Ranges of California and Baja California Weems' bighorn sheep, O. c. weemsi, found in southern Baja California.
Starting in 1993, Ramey and colleagues, using DNA testing, have shown this division into seven subspecies is illusory. Most scientists recognize three subspecies of bighorn; this taxonomy is supported by the most extensive genetics study to date which found high divergence between Rocky Mountain and Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, that these two subspecies both diverged from desert bighorn prior to or during the Illinoian glaciation. Thus, the three subspecies of O. canadensis are: Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep – occupying the U. S. and Canadian Rocky Mountains, the Northwestern United States. Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep – California bighorn sheep, a genetically distinct subspecies that only occurs in the Sierra Nevada in California. However, historic observer records suggest that bighorn sheep may have ranged as far west as the California Coastal Ranges which are contiguous to the Sierra Nevada via the Transverse Ranges. An account of "wild sheep" in the vicinity of the Mission San Antonio near Jolon and the mountains around San Francisco Bay dates to circa 1769.
Desert bighorn sheep – occurring throughout the desert regions of the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico. The 2016 genetics study suggested more modest divergence of this desert bighorn sheep into three lineages consistent with the earlier work of Cowan: Nelson's, Peninsular; these three lineages occupy desert biomes that vary in climate, suggesting exposure to different selection regimens. In addition, two populations are considered endangered by the United States government: Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, Peninsular bighorn sheep, a distinct population segment of desert bighorn sheep Bighorn sheep are named for the large, curved horns borne by the rams. Ewes have horns, but they are shorter with less curvature, they range in color from light brown to grayish or dark, chocolate brown, with a white rump and lining on the backs of all four legs. Males weigh 58–143 kg, are 90–105 cm tall at the shoulder, 1.6–1.85 m long from the nose to the tail. Females are 34–91 kg, 75–90 cm tall, 1.28–1.58 m long.
Male bighorn sheep have large horn cores, enlarged cornual and frontal sinuses, internal bony septa. These adaptations serve to protect the brain by absorbing the impact of clashes. Bighorn sheep have preorbital glands on the anterior corner of each eye, inguinal glands in the groin, pedal glands on each foot. Secretions from these glands may support dominance behaviors. Bighorns from the Rocky Mountains are large, with males that exceed 230 kg and females that exceed 90 kg. In contrast, Sierra Nevada bighorn males weigh up to females to 60 kg. Males' horns can weigh up to 14 kg, as much as the rest of the bones in the male's body; the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep occupy the cooler mountainous regions of Canada and the United States. In contrast, the desert bighorn sheep subspecies are indigeno
Ladakh
Ladakh is a region in the Indian administered state of Jammu and Kashmir that extends from the Siachen Glacier in the Karakoram range to the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent. It is one of the most sparsely populated regions in Jammu and Kashmir and its culture and history are related to that of Tibet. Ladakh is renowned for culture; the region included the Baltistan valleys, the entire upper Indus Valley, the remote Zanskar and Spiti to the south, much of Ngari including the Rudok region and Guge in the east, Aksai Chin in the northeast, the Nubra Valley to the north over Khardong La in the Ladakh Range. Contemporary Ladakh borders Tibet to the east, the Lahaul and Spiti regions to the south, the Vale of Kashmir and Baltiyul regions to the west, the southwest corner of Xinjiang across the Karakoram Pass in the far north. Aksai Chin is one of the disputed border areas between India, it is administered by China as part of Hotan County but is claimed by India as a part of the Ladakh region of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
In 1962, China and India fought a brief war over Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh, but in 1993 and 1996 the two countries signed agreements to respect the Line of Actual Control. In the past Ladakh gained importance from its strategic location at the crossroads of important trade routes, but since the Chinese authorities closed the borders with Tibet and Central Asia in the 1960s, international trade has dwindled except for tourism. Since 1974, the Government of India has encouraged tourism in Ladakh. Since Ladakh is a part of strategically important Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian military maintains a strong presence in the region; the largest town in Ladakh is Leh, followed by Kargil. The government of Jammu and Kashmir created a separate administrative division from Kashmir division with headquarters on rotational basis 6month in kargil and 6month in leh Tibetan Buddhists and Hindus collectively represent the majority of the population while a plurality of Ladakhis are Muslims. Other religious groups include Sikhs etc.
Some activists from Leh have in recent times called for Ladakh to be constituted as a union territory because of perceived unfair treatment by Kashmir and Ladakh's cultural differences with predominantly Muslim Kashmir while people of Kargil oppose UT status for Ladakh. The Tibetan name La-dvags means "land of high passes". Ladakh is its pronunciation in several Tibetan districts, a transliteration of the Persian spelling. Rock carvings found in many parts of Ladakh indicate that the area has been inhabited from Neolithic times. Ladakh's earliest inhabitants consisted of a mixed Indo-Aryan population of Mons and Dards, who find mention in the works of Herodotus, Megasthenes, Pliny and the geographical lists of the Puranas. Around the 1st century, Ladakh was a part of the Kushan Empire. Buddhism spread into western Ladakh from Kashmir in the 2nd century when much of eastern Ladakh and western Tibet was still practicing the Bon religion; the 7th century Buddhist traveler Xuanzang describes the region in his accounts.
According to Rolf Alfred Stein, author of Tibetan Civilization, the area of Zhangzhung was not a part of Tibet and was a distinctly foreign territory to the Tibetans. According to Stein, "... Further west, The Tibetans encountered a distinctly foreign nation—Shangshung, with its capital at Khyunglung. Mt. Kailāśa and Lake Manasarovar formed part of this country, whose language has come down to us through early documents. Though still unidentified, it seems to be Indo-European.... Geographically the country was open to India, both through Nepal and by way of Kashmir and Ladakh. Kailāśa is a holy place for the Indians. No one knows how long they have done so, but the cult may well go back to the times when Shangshung was still independent of Tibet. How far Zhangzhung stretched to the north and west is a mystery... We have had an occasion to remark that Shangshung, embracing Kailāśa sacred Mount of the Hindus, may once have had a religion borrowed from Hinduism; the situation may have lasted for quite a long time.
In fact, about 950, the Hindu King of Kabul had a statue of Viṣṇu, of the Kashmiri type, which he claimed had been given him by the king of the Bhota who, in turn had obtained it from Kailāśa." A chronicle of Ladakh compiled in the 17th century called the La dvags royal rabs, meaning the Royal Chronicle of the Kings of Ladakh recorded that this boundary was traditional and well-known. The first part of the Chronicle was written in the years 1610–1640 and the second half towards the end of the 17th century; the work has been translated into English by A. H. Francke and published in 1926 in Calcutta titled the Antiquities of Indian Tibet. In volume 2, the Ladakhi Chronicle describes the partition by King Skyid-lde-ngima-gon of his kingdom between his three sons, the chronicle described the extent of territory secured by that son; the following quotation is from page 94 of this book: He gave to each of his sons a separate kingdom, viz. to the eldest Dpal-gyi-gon, Maryul of Mngah-ris, the inhabitants using black bows.
From a perusal of the aforesaid work, It is evident. After the family partition, Rudok continued to be part
