Endangered urials have arrived at Nordens Ark

This wednesday a ram and a ewe arrived to Nordens Ark from Liberec zoo in the Czech Republic. At the same time they received one of Nordens Ark's rams. To move animals between zoos is important for the strive to save endangered animal species.

The threats against the urials are very real and the situation for them looks like in the wild is severe. Their habitats are strongly affected by us human and the number are declining so it is extra important that the world's zoos are helped to maintain a viable population.

Today, there are only 30 urials left in five of zoos in Europe, with the largest group living at Nordens Ark.

- Wild sheep and goats are extremely important for the biodiversity, says Ewa Wikberg, zoological director at Nordens Ark. They play an important role and we must all help to save them.

Urial ram at Nordens Ark. Photo: Marie Mattsson

The work zoos do exchanging animals with each other is crucial to keep the genetic high, but logistics is often a challenge.

-When the two urials arrived from Liberec, we sent a ram to them, says Sara Nilsson who is responsible for the animal transports at Nordens Ark. Importing and exporting cloven-hoofed animals between different continents involve some difficulties due to international legislation, but within Europe it works quite smoothly.

About the species

Urial is a light brown, wild sheep with large horns that sit wide apart and bend outwards. In rams, the horns can be about one meter long, while the ewes' are much shorter. Most urials live in Tajikistan in mountain ranges at altitudes up to 6,000 meters above sea level.

The declining number of the species is mainly due to poaching and competition for pastures with human domestication. In the past, trophy hunting was a major threat to the urials. In some cases, you could pay up to $ 20,000 to shoot one animal.