Classroom lesson · Sport · 🇹🇯 Tajikistan

Marco Polo Sheep

A magnificent mountain sheep with the longest curved horns of any animal on Earth

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

The Marco Polo sheep is a large wild sheep that lives in the high Pamir Mountains. It is famous for its extraordinary horns, which curl round in a wide spiral and can grow longer than a metre — the longest horns of any sheep or goat in the world. It was named after the explorer Marco Polo, who described these amazing animals when he passed through the Pamirs in the 13th century.

Tell me more

Marco Polo sheep live at altitudes above 4,000 metres, grazing on tough mountain grasses and surviving temperatures that drop far below freezing. Their thick woolly coats change colour slightly through the seasons, keeping them warm in winter and cooler in summer. Both males and females have horns, though the males' horns are much larger.

The males use their great spiral horns during their rutting season — they clash together dramatically, making a crashing sound that echoes across the mountain valleys. Despite the noise, neither animal usually gets hurt. The horns are more about showing off strength than causing harm.

Marco Polo sheep travel in herds that roam across borders between Tajikistan, Afghanistan, China and Kyrgyzstan. Because they cross so many countries, wildlife experts from those countries have worked together to protect the herds. This is a wonderful example of countries helping each other to look after the animals they share.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

01Marco Polo sheep were named after someone who saw them and wrote about them. What would you name a new animal after?
02Why might several countries need to work together to protect one type of animal?
03The horns keep growing all through the sheep's life. What other things in nature keep growing without stopping?

Try this

Classroom activity

Measure a metre of string or ribbon and lay it on the floor. That is roughly how long a Marco Polo sheep's horns can grow! Then measure your own arm span and height. Compare them to the horn length. Write a sentence about what surprised you most.

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