Gansu argali /Ovis ammon dalailama

Very interesting! So as far as I understand, according to current consensus, ssp. dalailamae is considered to be a synonymous with ssp. hodgsonii

ssp. hodgsonii by the way is considered a full species now according to Ungulate Taxonomy (2011).

@baboon or @Deer Forest, morphologically how would you distinguish ssp. dalailamae from other taxa in the Ovis ammon complex?

@UngulateNerd92 You are right, now we generally call them hodgsoni. Actually I am not sure about this. baboon must know more than me.

@UngulateNerd92 According the book "The Great Arc of Wild Sheep", Ovis ammon hodgsoni belongs to the high-brow sheep group, which means there is a obtuse angle between its horn base and its forehead; on the other hand, the Macro Polo sheep and Tianshan argali's horn base is on the same line with its forehead. Meanwhile, Ovis ammon hodgsoni is the only argali subspecies that retains its white collar during summer, and even in winter, this subspecies's white collar is the most significant among all the argali subspecies.

@baboon Wow! Thank you for the explanation! I actually have "The Great Arc of Wild Sheep" in my collection.

Pardon my digression, but I discovered that book last year in the library at California State University, Long Beach.

Although an old publication, its a good one...

@UngulateNerd92 You are welcome! I learned that book from another book from George Schaller, in that book Schaller says his interest in wild sheep derives from a book named "The Great Arc of Wild Sheep"