Franken-Wildlife: will cloned game destroy hunting?
From our US edition
In October 2024, a Montana rancher was sentenced to federal prison time and charged a hefty fine for illegally cloning a giant hybrid sheep, afterwards referred to as the “Montana Mountain King.” Using testicles and other tissues illegally imported to the United States from an argali Marco Polo (Ovis ammon polii) sheep hunted in Kyrgyzstan, the rancher contracted a laboratory to create cloned embryos which he then implanted to ewes on his ranch, eventually resulting in an impressive male specimen tailored for the captive trophy hunting industry. He then worked with co-conspirators to use semen from the cloned animal to impregnate various other sheep and create hybrid specimens of large body and horn size for illegal sale to captive hunting facilities in various other states.
