any talk of this at Ovis/ Grand Slam?

From The Hunting Report...
"Blockbuster Fannin Sheep Study Released:
Fannin sheep have always been treated as stone sheep, but a newly released DNA study indicates that fannin sheep are actually Dall sheep. Does this mean scores of Grand Slams based on fannins taken as stone sheep are about to be thrown out of the record books? And what about the soaring cost of stone sheep hunts versus Dall sheep hunts? Will Canadian outfitters in the wake of this study continue to bill fannin sheep hunts as stone sheep hunts? The Hunting Report will have a follow-up story shortly. In the meantime, you can read the new study yourself." sheep DNA study

I wrote to the author of the study to clarify. The "Fannins are Dalls" conclusion in The Hunting Report does not appear to be supported by the data.

Here is the response from the author...

Hi Jason,

Thanks for your interest in our work and bringing my attention to the
article in Hunting Report. I think it is great that the hunting community
has taken an interest in our work and the fascinating aspects of sheep
evolution.

You are correct that our data do not show that the so called Fannin's
sheep (a distinctive colour morphology found in some sheep in the Pelly
Mountains and Ogilvie Mountains) are actually Dall's sheep, although I
understand how this may be misunderstood. Our evidence is from one small
portion of the entire sheep genome that is particularly useful for
analysis of evolutionary history. Evidence from other portions of sheep
DNA demonstrate a clear link between sheep in the Pelly Mountains and in
northern British Columbia (Worley et al. 2004- attached). Colour
morphology in these populations also support this link. Evidence from DNA
should be viewed as a whole and not taken in isolation. In effect each
portion of the DNA tells a different part of the entire story.

Our evidence did show that sheep in the Pelly Mountains have interbred
with white (Dall's) sheep populations on an evolutionary timescale
(thousands of years ago). This is also true for Stone's sheep in British
Columbia as they have interbred with Dall's sheep populations in Northwest
Territories. Furthermore, we found great similarity between British
Columbian Stone's sheep populations and bighorn sheep indicating that
hybridisation has occurred between bighorn and thinhorn sheep. On the
whole I think a good take home message from our results is that
hybridisation between populations, subspecies and species has occurred,
and on the whole hybridisation has had a greater influence on North
American mountain sheep evolution than we previously thought.

In the paper we do make the recommendation that the Stone's sheep
subspecies is not useful to collectively describe the Pelly Mountain and
BC populations, because of the clinal difference in colour morphology and
differing evolutionary histories. From a management perspective and the
preservation of biodiversity I believe it is more appropriate to assess
these populations separately. However, decisions regarding changes in
taxonomic status (if any) will be made as more evidence becomes available
and sufficient scientific debate has occurred.

Scientific taxonomy and trophy hunting categories need not be the same. If
I remember correctly this is currently the case in that California bighorn
are regarded as equivalent to Rocky Mountain bighorn by the Grand Slam
Club. Also the IUCN Caprinae specialist group states:

"There are differences between scientific and “hunting” taxonomies.
Although in most cases there is broad overlap, hunting record categories
have been established for a number of “forms” that are not recognized by
taxonomists. There was a general consensus among the delegates that
scientific taxonomy must be based on genetic differences: subspecies
cannot be simply recognized on the basis of environmentally-induced
morphological differences, or differences in horn size. Those differences,
however, can be justifiably used for classification and ranking of hunting
trophies."

For the entire document see the link:
http://www.callisto.si.usherb.ca:8080/caprinae/taxo.htm

Hope this helps you understand the results, and thanks once again for
bringing my attention to the article.

Best regards,

John Loehr