King of the Altai Monument Unveiled
Rick Taylor’s Argali monument, King of the Altai, was erected and unveiled on September 16^th. The life-size monument stands in the park before the Natural History Museum in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.

It stands as a symbol of the greatness of the mighty Altai argali, the world’s largest sheep. It is one more monument by Rick Taylor deifying a game species that we hunters care so deeply about. Like his other sculptures it makes a statement in a centralized public place to educate the public and share our amazement for the animals we pursue.

The monument was a joint project of Rick Taylor, Conservation Force, Mongolia Travel USA, and the Mongolian authorities. Conservation Force helped promote the monument and acted as the nonprofit charitable recipient of most of the contributions for its creation and placement. In return, part of the funding has been dedicated to Conservation Force’s argali conservation projects. The first is our effort to downlist the argali in China from “endangered.” The second is to fulfill the conditions of the “special rule” that regulates the importation of argali trophies from the countries where they are listed as “threatened” under the ESA. That project will eliminate the necessity of obtaining a trophy import permit from the USF&WS before importation. Third, the funds will also help our efforts to fend off the tactics of anti-hunters to eliminate hunting of argali.

We are also pleased with the extraordinary people and organizations that came together to support the effort that all share equally in this success. The monument has a large cast bronze plaque entitled King of the Altai that pays tribute to the supporters and patrons listed. They are:

We also want to thank Diane Marinos, the wife of Conservation Force supporter James Marinos, for filming the unveiling ceremony. She relates that it “was a most moving (to tears) experience. Thank you for the invitation and I will long remember the experience of standing there in Mongolia and being part of such a special event. The people were all so very interesting and devoted to the cause….”