.jpg "Marco Polo sheep, like this 68-inch ram, have been off limits to hunters in Tajikistan since hunting was closed there on Jan. 1, 2009. (Photo provided to The Hunting Report by Espacaza)")
Hunters who thought they were going to get a crack at a Marco Polo sheep in Tajikistan this coming fall should know that is probably not going to happen. Despite an announcement in January 2010 that a two-year hunting moratorium there was being lifted, authorities have not taken the necessary steps to officially open hunting this season. Hunting will remain closed through 2010, sources told The Hunting Report, a newsletter that serves hunters who travel.
Located in Central Asia, Tajikistan is a former Soviet satellite republic and home to what many sheep hunters consider the holy grail of sheep—the Marco Polo argali, ovis ammon polii. Among the most expensive game species around the world with a price tag exceeding $25,000, the Marco Polo is a majestic animal with horns that spiral horizontally and can reach up to 60 inches in width. But hunting for this highly-coveted species has been on hold for more than a year now. Serious mountain hunters who originally booked hunts for the 2009 season were hoping to travel to Tajikistan this fall, but those plans are on hold once again. Thousands of dollars are tied up in deposits.
One of those hunters is Tim Fallon of SAAM, a precision shooting school for hunters. Fallon says this is the fourth consecutive year he and three friends have been prevented from taking this hunt for one reason or another. “It is very disappointing and frustrating,” he says. “Not only am I unable to collect what I consider the most beautiful sheep in the world, but I haven’t been able to book another hunt during October/November in four years due to tied up deposits and the expectation that we’d be hunting Marco Polo. We thought it was finally going to happen in 2010.”
Jerry Baker of Menard, Texas, who is an official measurer for the Boone & Crockett Club and a longtime subscriber of The Hunting Report, was also scheduled to hunt Tajikistan this October. “I’ve been hunting for 55 years and don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to do these tough sheep hunts,” he says. “I hope I get the chance for a Marco Polo before I just can’t do it anymore.”
The latest problems in Tajikistan emerged in December 2008, when the country’s president announced that hunting would be closed effective Jan. 1, 2009. He cited concerns over sheep numbers as his reason for doing so. The Marco Polo hunting season runs from September through March and a number of hunters from the 2008 fall season had trouble getting export permits issued for trophies taken before the closure. Complicating matters, the president never issued a written declaration officially closing hunting. Operators could not get additional information from the president’s office or the minister overseeing hunting. When export permits finally were issued for 2008 trophies, a serious typographical error led the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) to seize all of the trophies sent to the United States. After several tense months, Tajik authorities cleared things up with USFWS, and in December 2009 the trophies were released.
In January 2010, word reached booking agents and operators exhibiting at the Dallas Safari Club convention in Dallas that the president of Tajikistan had announced that Marco Polo sheep hunting would reopen for the 2010 season. A sheep population survey conducted by biologists showed the Marco Polo numbers where actually higher than ever and able to sustain harvest quotas. Five months later, the Tajik authorities still have not issued the written declaration required to reopen hunting. On the contrary, a source close to the Environment Committee, the government body that administers hunting in Tajikistan, says there are no plans to lift the moratorium until 2011.
Why hunting has not been reopened is still a mystery, considering the excellent results of a sheep survey recently conducted and the subsequent announcement by the president. Communications between hunting NGOs (non-government organizations) with ministers and leading biologists in Tajikistan have been positive, but as of press time no official declaration had been issued to reopen hunting in that country. Some hunting operators still hold out hope, but even if Tajik authorities do open hunting now, U.S. hunters will be shut out for certain. That’s because Tajikistan never provided the information from those new sheep population surveys to USFWS, which requires that information before it will issue U.S. hunters the permits allowing them to import Marco Polo trophies into the United States. That same scenario occurred several years ago when Fallon and his friends were cancelled the first time. The next year, demand was so high that the number of U.S. hunters applying for an import permit was greater than the quota of permits available, leaving Fallon and his friends unable to hunt that year, too. There is likely to be a shortage of import permits in 2011 as well, if the Tajiks actually do reopen Marco Polo hunting.
For more information on hunting in exotic places like Tajikistan or to learn more about The Hunting Report and how it can help you research and plan a hunting trip anywhere in the world, visit www.huntingreport.com.
