Rare Wild Animals in Tibet – Blue Sheep

Morphological Characteristics of Blue Sheep

The blue sheep in Tibet is also noted as bharal. It got its name for it loves to climb the rocks. Generally, the adult blue sheep enjoys a body length of 1.15 to 1.65 meters and a weight of 25 to 80 kilometers. Its shoulder enjoys a height of 75 to 90 centimeters and its tail is only about 10 to 20 centimeters. Mostly, the male blue sheep is larger than the female blue sheep. The blue sheep in Tibet has small head and years, and big eyes. Both the male and female blue sheep have horns. The roots of the horns are pretty close to the each other and shape a V. The back of the blue sheep in Tibet is brownish grey or slate grey with a little blue. In a word, the color of its back is quite close to the rocks. The belly and inside part of the legs of the blue sheep are white while the frontier foresides of its legs are black.

Living Habit of Blue Sheep

The blue sheep in Tibet mainly inhabit in the plateau areas with an altitude of 2500 to 5000 meters. Mostly, there is no tree or any other higher plants in these regions. Blue sheep is a typical social animal. It would always move in small group (composed of dozens of blue sheep) in summer and move in big group (composed of hundreds of blue sheep) in winter. Generally, the blue sheep groups would be leaded by one or several strong male blue sheep.

The blue sheep living on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau would always act in the morning or at the sunset. Tourists making a Tibet tour would have the chance to see few blue sheep watching from a higher rock if you are lucky enough. The blue sheep in Tibet would always run to the area with bare rocks when they found their enemies are trying to get close to them. It is hard to find the blue sheep when they are hiding among the rocks silently since the color of their hair is so close to the rocks. The blue sheep would always rest among the rocks at noon and in the night. It would come to the streams for drinking in the morning or at the sunset. Grass, under-shrub and moss are the main food of the blue sheep.

Distribution of Blue Sheep on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

The blue sheep is an endemic species on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It mainly distributes in Tibet Autonomous Region, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Gansu Province and Western Sichuan Province. It is researched that the distribution range of blue sheep in Kunlun Mountains – Arxan Mountain areas covers 280,000 square kilometers. It is measured that there are about 50,000 to 80,000 blue sheep living in that region.

For the protection of the blue sheep living in the Kunlun Mountains – Arxan Mountain areas, three natural reserves had been established so far. The establishment of these natural reserves greatly improved the living environment of the blue sheep, but there are still some urgent problems need to be solved. The number of blue sheep keeps decreasing year by year. Hunting from human beings had been the largest threat to the survival of the blue sheep. The blue sheep in Tibet has been listed as a second class national protected animal.