Montana breeder jailed for cloning giant sheep for trophy hunting

“This was an audacious scheme to create massive hybrid sheep species to be sold and hunted as trophies,” the justice department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) said in a statement.

Marco Polo argali males can weigh more than 135kg (300 lbs) and have horns that span more than 1.5m (5ft).

The sheep, native to the mountains of the Pamir region of Central Asia, are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

They are prohibited in Montana to protect native sheep from disease – as well as to prevent the creation of hybrids.

Schubarth owns Sun River Enterprises LLC, a ranch which breeds and sells “alternative livestock” to private hunting preserves, where people shoot the animals for a fee, prosecutors said.

Court documents say he sold semen from MMK along with hybrid sheep to three people in Texas.

A Minnesota resident also brought his sheep to Schubarth’s ranch for them to be inseminated.

An MMK offspring apparently fetched $10,000 (£7,500).