Kamchatka Snow Sheep - 1992

Not a good pic, I know, but this was all I saw of this unusual animal
October 1992

I remember them. Really neat animals. Kind of a shaggier bighorn sheep.

I saw the male on several occasions, but this is one of the first images I've seen of the female. Towards the end of the male's life, the zoo reclassified the snow sheep as Okhotsk snow sheep, Ovis nivicola alleni.

What sort of information would come forth to make them do that? A general reclassification of the subspecies?

I am not sure ... the zoo has a tendency to put everything down as the nominate subspecies, seemingly for the sake of having their collection named down to subspecies level. Someone may have found more details on the origins of the animals (which came from a zoo in Russia) ... I doubt there is enough information on this species to be able to distinguish subspecies based on genetics, but you never know.

do any zoos have kamchatka snow sheep anymore ? , and why did san diego zoo phase theres out ?

Not to my knowledge. They phased them out because the animals in their collection reached the end of their lifespan and there weren't any to replace them with.

I just saw this as I was googling snow sheep not knowing much about them.

There is a wildlife park in Austria, Wildpark Altenfelden that has snow sheep, not sure of subspecies. Has anyone been there?

Wildpark Altenfelden