**5. Conclusions**

Using the welfare assessment protocol for farm animals (sheep) as the base, we developed a welfare protocol for welfare assessment in captive Punjab urial (*Ovis vignei punjabiensis*). This first specific protocol developed for Punjab urial comprised 4 basic principles, 12 criteria, and 31 animaland environmental-based indicators. Although this protocol still needs validation, its first application and subsequent results obtained from three di fferent herds of captive Punjab urial at CU1, CU2, and CU3 highlight some areas where improvements are essential. According to the results obtained from this protocol, handling, capturing, and translocation were found to be the most important areas for necessary action as most of the mortalities happened in capturing and translocation. Another important area which needs to be improved on an urgen<sup>t</sup> basis is the availability of veterinary facilities. Furthermore, we recommend the shifting of breeding animals between di fferent populations. Based on the results, we recommend covering the fence at CU1 in order to prevent frequent human–animal eye contact. On the basis of this study results, we believe that this protocol can be a promising tool for welfare assessment at facilities that hold Punjab urial. The current protocol has the best combination of welfare indicators for the target species and is a leading step in captive breeding research in Pakistan. In addition, this protocol can be used as a base for developing similar welfare protocols for other captive mountain ungulates in Pakistan and globally.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, R.H.K. and Z.L.; data curation, R.H.K.; formal analysis, R.H.K. and L.T.; funding acquisition, Z.L.; investigation, R.H.K. and L.T.; methodology, R.H.K.; project administration, R.H.K., L.T. and Z.L.; resources, R.H.K. and Z.L.; software, R.H.K. and L.T.; supervision, Z.L.; validation, L.T. and Z.L.; visualization, R.H.K. and L.T.; writing—original draft, R.H.K.; writing—review and editing, R.H.K., L.T. and Z.L.

**Funding:** This study was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (31372221, 31870512), and the fundamental research funds for the central universities (2572014CA03, DL13EA01). This study also go<sup>t</sup> financial support from Heilongjiang Touyan innovation team Program for forest ecology and conservation.

**Acknowledgments:** We are grateful to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Wildlife Department for allowing us to carry our study. We are also thankful to the sta ff members of every facility (CWP and MWP) for their cooperation throughout this study. We are thankful to Muhammad Zada for his valuable help. Authors are extremely grateful to Nazneen Sultan for giving valuable suggestions throughout the study.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
