The Red Book of the Kyrgyz SSR, published in 1985, included 13 species of mammals. The descriptions of the species, classification, and especially the information on their status were quite general. Over the years, the information, especially regarding bats, has significantly expanded. Information on the strategy for the conservation of mammals at the international level is easily accessible through modern information and communication technologies. Therefore, the publication of new data on mammals of Kyrgyzstan in close coordination with international efforts in this area is an urgent necessity.
Current information on the trends in the status of natural populations of the class indicates that 74 species of mammals have become extinct to date, 4 of which have gone extinct in the wild. One hundred sixty-two species are in critical condition, 352 are threatened, and 587 are vulnerable. From 1996 to 2000, this list was expanded by 51 species, and over the last 4 years, 36 species have been successfully removed from the vulnerable status. This positive example demonstrates the effectiveness of conservation measures and the emergence of strategies to improve both natural habitats and the protection of wild animals from limiting factors of both natural and anthropogenic origin. The application of standardized criteria and categories further enhances the effectiveness of such strategies at both national and international levels.
This edition includes 23 species of mammals. For most species of mammals, there were no disagreements regarding the inclusion or exclusion of a particular species. The greatest disputes arose over the species Marco Polo sheep, Ovis ammon Linnaeus, 1758, the Argali. As is known, in the 1985 edition, only the Tian Shan subspecies of the argali was protected. According to the majority of leading scientists in Kyrgyzstan, this approach is completely unjustified from the perspective of international wildlife conservation practices and is detrimental to other subspecies of the argali. In particular, the Pamir subspecies Ovis ammon polii Blyth, 1840 has been the target of commercial hunting for several years, with the income from this business returning in negligible amounts for conservation activities, and monitoring by specialists is virtually absent. Only the best males—those with the largest horns—are hunted, which has led to a significant deterioration in the sex-age, phenetic, and genetic structure of the populations. The remaining males have significantly poorer genotypes and phenotypes, which will ultimately lead to the degeneration of population morphological traits and a loss of commercial interest in this type of hunting in Kyrgyzstan from foreign hunters in the short- and medium-term. Therefore, the arguments of experts about the loss of budget revenues for Kyrgyzstan due to restrictions on commercial hunting are unfounded, as such losses will occur anyway for the reasons mentioned above, but future generations will lose not only economic benefits but, more importantly, the Pamir form of the argali in its pristine form. Moreover, according to the Convention on Biological Diversity, natural resources are the heritage of the people, not of individual representatives who organize commercial hunting for argalis. Including all subspecies in the Red Book will help Kyrgyzstan fulfill its obligations after the ratification of the convention by the Jogorku Kenesh of the republic. It should also be noted that the argali, according to the IUCN classification, falls into category V, Vulnerable, VUA2cde, which indicates a global trend of degradation in the status of natural populations of the argali. Ignoring this fact will severely damage Kyrgyzstan's international image in the eyes of the global environmental community, narrow the prospects for international cooperation, and nullify the prospects for ecological tourism, which, with proper marketing and management, including natural resources, can serve as an alternative and, most importantly, sustainable source of income for the republic's budget, including for conservation activities aimed at protecting and reproducing the argali population and supporting the initiatives of local communities in the practice of wildlife conservation in Kyrgyzstan.
