A Montana man faces sentencing in federal court for illegally using tissue from large sheep hunted in Central Asia and the U.S. to illegally create hybrid sheep for trophy hunting.

Montana Mountain King, a sheep cloned from near threatened Marco Polo argali sheep as part of an unlawful scheme to create large, hybrid sheep for hunting in the US. Photograph: AP ...

The rancher illegally brought parts of the Marco Polo argali sheep, one of the largest sheep species in the world, weighing 300 pounds or more, to the U.S., court records show.

Schubarth's process would result in a single pure genetic male Marco Polo argali named "Montana Mountain King" or "MMK," the Justice Department said. The rancher then used MMK's semen to artificially ...

A Montana rancher has been sentenced to six months in prison after cloning a "near threatened" sheep from Asia and then selling its offspring to shooting preserves, according to court documents.

The cloning conspiracy began in 2013, with a Marco Polo sheep hunted in Kyrgyzstan. The Marco Polo is the largest sheep in the world, weighing as much as 300 pounds, with horns that can reach 5 ...

Marco Polo sheep are the largest in the world, can weigh 300 pounds (136 kilograms) and have curled horns up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) long, court records said.