In September, a A Montana man was sentenced to six months in prison after trafficking a clone of one of the world’s largest sheep species. Court documents allege that Arthur Schubarth trafficked the body parts of a near-threatened Marco Polo argali sheep into the U.S. from Kyrgyzstan and in 2015 hired a lab to create a cloned sheep he later named Montana Mountain King ( MMK). Later, the documents allege, Schubarth used MMK’s semen to fertilize sheep and then sold his offspring, each with some argali genetics from Marco Polo, to people involved in big game hunting.
It’s a strange case. It is likely only the second time an American has been prosecuted for a wildlife crime involving animal cloning. (In 2011, a man was fined $1.5 million and ordered to hand over smuggled deer, as well as nearly $1 million in deer semen, which investigators believed he intended to use to clone white-tailed deer , in a case involving the illegal purchase and transportation of deer)
There is another strange element to Schubarth’s story: Potentially, dozens of MMK descendants could now be at large in the United States. These sheep containing MMK genetics are defined as contraband in a handful of plea agreements signed by men who allegedly purchased sheep from Schubarth or transported sheep to his ranch in Montana to be impregnated. What is not clear is how many sheep are at large and what exactly has happened to them.
However, legal documents offer some clues. A legal filing in the case against Schubarth alleges that in November 2018 a person transported 26 sheep to Schubarth’s ranch in Montana to be inseminated with MMK semen, and a year later, the same person transported another 48 sheep. In July 2020, the same document alleges, two other people transported another 43 sheep to Schubarth’s ranch. There are at least several dozen ewes that may have had offspring from MMK, and each of them may have had several lambs.
The same document also alleges that one of MMK’s descendants was transported from Minnesota to Schubarth’s ranch in Montana in May 2019. Then, in July 2020, Schubarth agreed to sell 11 of MMK’s grandchildren for a total of $13,200. and one of MMK’s children, a sheep named Montana. Black Magic, for 10,000 dollars. Schubarth is also alleged to have sold another Marco Polo hybrid sheep to a man living in South Dakota.
At least one sheep has been found: MMK himself. Initially, the sheep had been taken to a Zoological Association of America-accredited facility in Oregon, says Christina Meister of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Public Affairs Office. On October 2, MMK flew across the country to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, New York, where he will be housed long-term. MMK is expected to be on display at the zoo in mid-November, Meister says. (The USFWS declined to answer other questions posed by WIRED.)