The US Has a Cloned Sheep Contraband Problem

In September, a man from Montana was sentenced to six months in prison after he trafficked a clone of one of the world’s largest sheep species. Court documents allege that Arthur Schubarth trafficked body parts of a near threatened Marco Polo argali sheep into the US from Kyrgyzstan and in 2015 contracted with a lab to create a cloned sheep he later named Montana Mountain King (MMK). Later, the documents allege, Schubarth used MMK’s semen to impregnate ewes and then sold offspring—each carrying some Marco Polo argali genetics—to people involved in big game hunting.

It’s a weird case. It’s likely only the second time that an American has been prosecuted for a wildlife crime that involved animal cloning. (In 2011 a man was fined $1.5 million and ordered to surrender smuggled deer as well as nearly $1 million of deer semen—which investigators believed he intended to use to clone whitetail deer—in a case that involved the unlawful purchase and transportation of deer.)

There’s another strange element to Schubarth’s story: Potentially dozens of MMK’s descendants may now be at large in the US. These sheep that contain genetics from MMK are defined as contraband in the handful of plea agreements that were signed by men who were alleged to have bought sheep from Schubarth or transported ewes to his ranch in Montana to be impregnated. What isn’t clear is how many sheep are at large, and what exactly has happened to them.

However, legal documents offer some clues. One legal filing in the case against Schubarth alleges that in November 2018 one person transported 26 ewes to Schubarth’s ranch in Montana to be inseminated with MMK semen, and a year later the same person later transported another 48 ewes. In July 2020, the same document alleges, two other people transported another 43 sheep to Schubarth’s ranch. That’s at least several dozen sheep that may have carried MMK’s offspring—and each of those may have had several lambs.

The same document also alleges that one of MMK’s offspring 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 called Montana Black Magic, for $10,000. It’s also alleged that Schubarth sold another Marco Polo hybrid sheep to a man who lives in South Dakota.

At least one sheep is accounted for: MMK himself. The sheep had initially been taken to a Zoological Association of America accredited facility in Oregon, says Christina Meister of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Office of Public Affairs. On October 2, MMK was flown across the country to Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, New York, where he will be housed for the long term. MMK is expected to be on exhibition at the zoo in mid-November, Meister says. (The USFWS declined to answer other questions posed by WIRED.)