Range Description

This species is found in Russia, where they occur in the Putorana Mountains, north central Siberia, northeast Siberia from Lena River east to Chukotka and Kamchatka (Baskin 1985, Grubb, 2005, Pavlinov et al 2002).

The snow sheep is distributed throughout most of the mountain regions of eastern Siberia (Russia). The main distribution area begins just east of the Lena River and stretches as far as the Tenkany mountains on the Chukotsk peninsula on the western edge of the Bering Strait (Pavlinov et al 2002). This sheep also occurs in the volcanic mountains running down the Kamchatka peninsula, and the southern limit of the species appears to be in the Yablonovoi Range, south of the Lena River (Pavlinov et al 2002, Bunch et al. 2006). In addition, a totally isolated population, referred to Putoran snow sheep (O. n. borealis) is restricted to the Putoran Mountains south of the Tamyr peninsula (about 66° to 70°N and 92° to 98°E), east of the Yenisey River, and separated from the nearest Yakutian population by about 1,000 km (Sipko et al. 1999, Pavlinov et al 2002).