The Fall and Rise of Texas Big Horns

The desert bighorn sheep in West Texas are simply a smaller and lighter-colored version of the same species that roams throughout the Rocky Mountains and western Canada. Desert bighorn are well-adapted to the arid rocky southwestern landscape where they often exist in clusters of populations occupying several mountain ranges. Through time, populations of bighorn may die out in one mountain range, only to be repopulated via immigrants from nearby habitat. Sometimes they never come back on their own and sometimes conditions change, and they pioneer to ranges they haven’t occupied before. Unlike their flatlander cousins, bighorn thrive in rugged and cliffy habitat called “escape terrain” because it offers them the opportunity to escape from predators that are not so adept at bouncing along the cliffs. Desert bighorns generally do well in remote areas as long as they have enough forage, water, and protection from disease and predation. Those who came before

We know desert bighorn have been in West Texas for a long time because we have evidence in the form of petroglyphs in remote rocky areas. These depictions of bighorn were made long before our recent advances in wildlife management, but they attest to the fact that Texas Parks and Wildlife Department were not the first ones to count bighorn in the Trans-Pecos. Petroglyphs identified in El Paso and Hudspeth counties and in the Sierra Diablo Mountains illustrate just how important these animals have been to local residents for hundreds and possibly thousands of years. These animals were important through the eons for meat, tool material, leather, and ceremonial uses.

A healthy band of bighorns on the edge of Elephant Mountain with Santiago Peak in the background.

Fall of the mountain monarch

Early salt miners needed meat and in the arid mountain ranges of West Texas, bighorns contributed to their supply. Later, the Hazel Mine (1882-96), a profitable silver mine between the Beach, Baylor, and Sierra Diablos ranges, no doubt resulted in heavy local pressure on those bighorn populations.

Various people estimated between 500 and 1,500 bighorns were present in about 17 mountain ranges in West Texas in the 1880s. By that time, most people knowledgeable about the bighorn predicted their demise forever from all the scattered mountain ranges in the Trans-Pecos. Hunting bighorn was specifically outlawed in 1903 to curb the over-exploitation of local populations, but that law did not assure the persistence of this native desert mountain dweller.

By 1939, William Davis and Walter Taylor published “The Status of Bighorn Sheep in Texas,” and their best guess was Texas had about 300 bighorns left, most of them in Culberson County. Later estimates put the total at 150 bighorns in 1941 and then 75 in 1945, which seemed to confirm dire predictions that Texas would lose bighorns. Early bighorn enthusiasts, like Burch Carson in the 1940s, spent days and weeks in the mountains documenting bighorn abundance and distribution. Some of these notes and observations from Carson were included in Bob Cook’s 1994 historical review of Texas desert bighorn.

Although enforcing the closed season for bighorns was difficult in this remote region, it was the high numbers of domestic sheep that came in and trampled any hopes of the native bighorn populations recovering. According to an overview of bighorn in the Chihuahuan Desert by Scott Lerich, the price of domestic wool doubled between 1939 and 1943 and that drove a dramatic increase in domestic sheep raising. The number of domestic sheep in Culberson County alone increased from 19 sheep to 20,000 during that time. High numbers of domestic sheep brought not only more grazing on the Desert bighorn had declined in Texas due to same forage, but diseases from the over-hunting and domestic sheep raising. Old World that wild bighorns had not ever been exposed to and did not carry any immunity for. Domestic sheep were controlled and contained by stringing miles and miles of net-wire fences across the landscape. This new barrier kept bighorns from moving freely to water, green patches that received the first rainfall, finding mates, and generally just travel from mountain range to mountain range. In the end, forage competition, diseases, net-wire fencing, and unregulated killing was too much for them. The last known sighting of native bighorn in Texas occurred in the summer of 1960 when two ewes were sighted in Victoria Canyon in the Sierra Diablo Mountains north of Van Horn by TPWD personnel. Desert bighorn persisted in the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Coahuila until at least the 1970s.

Texas bighorns are a great example of the successful use of translocations to restore native wildlife populations.

Year

1957 1958 1958 1959 1959 1971 1971 1973 1977 1978 1979 1979 1979 1980 1983 1983 1983 1984 1984 1985 1987 1987 1987 1988 1988 1988 1988 1988 1990 1991 1992 1992 1992 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 2000 2010 2011 2011 2011 2012 2014 2015 2015 2015 2017 2019

TOTAL

Total

15 1 3 1 10 20 8 7 6 7 5 5 7 8 15 10 2 2 2 3 25 5 20 10 15 11 3 3 25 28 1 10 11 12 21 20 3 10 43 20 45 46 9 22 64 44 61 20 40 15 82 74

955

Capture Site

Arizona Arizona Arizona Arizona Arizona Black Gap enclosure Black Gap enclosure Sierra Diablo WMA enclosures Punta Prieta, Baja, Mexico Black Gap enclosure Arizona Arizona Sierra Diablo WMA enclosures Arizona Nevada Arizona Sierra Diablo Mountains Canyonlands NP Nevada Canyonlands NP Nevada Chilicote Ranch enclosure Sierra Diablo WMA enclosures Nevada Nevada Chilicote Ranch enclosure Sierra Diablo WMA enclosures Sierra Diablo WMA enclosures Sierra Diablo WMA enclosures Beach Mts. Holding Facility Elephant Mountain WMA Sierra Diablo WMA enclosures Sierra Diablo WMA enclosures Sierra Diablo WMA enclosures Beach Mts Holding Facility Nevada Elephant Mountain WMA Elephant Mountain WMA Sierra Diablo WMA enclosures Nevada Elephant Mountain WMA Elephant Mountain WMA Beach Mountains Baylor Mountains Sierra Diablo Mountains Elephant Mountain WMA Elephant Mountain WMA Beach Mountains Sierra Diablo Mountains Sierra Diablo Mountains Elephant Mountain WMA Elephant Mountain WMA

Release Site

Black Gap WMA enclosure Black Gap WMA enclosure Black Gap WMA enclosure Black Gap WMA enclosure Black Gap WMA enclosure Black Gap WMA Sierra Diablo WMA enclosure Sierra Diablo Mountains Black Gap WMA enclosure Chilicote Ranch enclosure Black Gap WMA Black Gap WMA Sierra Diablo Mountains Kerrville, Texas Sierra Diablo WMA enclosure Sierra Diablo WMA enclosure Sierra Diablo WMA enclosure Sierra Diablo WMA enclosure Sierra Diablo WMA enclosure Kerrville, Texas Van Horn Mountains Sierra Vieja Mountains Elephant Mountain WMA Baylor Mountains Van Horn Mountains Baylor Mountains Elephant Mountain WMA Sierra Diablo Mountains Beach Mts Holding Facility Beach Mountains Sierra Diablo WMA enclosure Sierra Diablo WMA enclosure Sierra Diablo Mountains Beach Mts Holding Facility Beach Mountains Black Gap WMA Black Gap WMA Black Gap WMA Sierra Diablo Mountains Black Gap WMA Black Gap WMA Big Bend Ranch State Park Big Bend Ranch State Park Big Bend Ranch State Park Big Bend Ranch State Park 9 Point Mesa Capote Peak Big Bend Ranch State Park Big Bend Ranch State Park Capote Peak Black Gap WMA Black Gap WMA

A band of brothers lounging on Elephant Mountain.

Rise of the Texas bighorn

Following the initial research on bighorn distribution and abundance by Walter Taylor, William Davis, and Burch Carson, the Sierra Diablo Mountains were designated as a refuge for bighorn in 1945, but that was too little, too late at that point because they needed active management. In 1954, an agreement between the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wildlife Management Institute, Boone and Crockett Club, and Arizona and Texas paved the way for the trapping of desert bighorn from the Kofa Game Range in southwestern Arizona to put them in a 427-acre enclosure at the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area (WMA). By 1959, 16 Arizona bighorns were captured and placed in the enclosure.

This began a long history of restoration based on translocating bighorns back to their historical range. (See page 99.) The restoration made slow progress initially and was mostly unsuccessful until 1983 when a renewed effort kick-started the program. Bighorn were translocated first from captive populations, but then from wild free-ranging bighorn populations once those herds started increasing. More than half of the bighorn released had radio collars to learn more about their survival and movements.

To date, more than 900 bighorns have been translocated as part of a conservation success story funded primarily by hunters. Thanks to the contributions of sportsmen and women, bighorn have been restored to an abundance similar to their levels in the early 1900s. The Texas Bighorn Society has been the cornerstone of the restoration of desert bighorn in Texas. Their advocacy, money, and influence helped drive initial successful restoration efforts in the 1980s and evolved into on-going support for proper management. The successful efforts cascaded into additional support from landowners including the donation of the 23,147-acre Elephant Mountain Ranch to TPWD in 1985.

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Current status

Currently there are about 1,500 wild free-ranging desert bighorns in 11 populations, including: Elephant Mountain WMA, Black Gap WMA, Sierra Diablo Mountains, Beach Mountains, Baylor Mountains, Bofecillos Mountains in Big Bend Ranch State Park, Nine Point Mesa, Sierra Vieja Mountains, Van Horn Mountains, and Capote Peak. The ability to hunt a recovered species is always a sure sign of conservation success and that is certainly true with the Texas bighorn. Contrary to the dire predictions made by many, Texas offered the first bighorn tag in 1988. Annual fall helicopter surveys were initiated by TPWD in 1990 and continue to guide proper management. Currently the permit system allows about 15-17 permits for private landowners and three for the general public. Since most bighorn habitat in Texas is privately owned, this successful restoration has been a collaboration between TPWD, Texas Bighorn Society, Wild Sheep Foundation, Dallas Safari Club, private landowners and neighboring states using money mostly from sportsmen and women and their organizations. Their interest, money, and advocacy for healthy native bighorn populations has returned this mountain monarch to the TransPecos for everyone to enjoy.

This article is dedicated to Dr. Bob Dittmar, Dewey Stockbridge, and Brandon White who made the ultimate sacrifice during their efforts to continue to monitor, manage, and build the Texas bighorn population.

Desert bighorn have been in West Texas for a long time as evidenced by petroglyphs in remote rocky areas.

Carol with Dennis Montesinos (left) and her husband Paul (right).

Not even a pandemic would stop us from hunting during spring turkey season in the Texas Hill Country. I had the honor of hunting with the best and most natural turkey hunters I know: Turkey Man No. 1 and Turkey Man No. 2. Dennis Montesinos is Turkey Man No. 1. He is a self-taught turkey hunter and has also guided turkey hunts for over 20 years.

Dennis hunts all over Texas from Fredericksburg to Carrizo Springs and Dilley. He learned how to hunt turkeys by watching videos of the legendary Ben Rodgers Lee, the founder of modern turkey hunting. If you haven’t heard or read about Ben Rodgers Lee, you should take the time to learn about him. Ben was killed in a car accident in October 1991, but he’s credited as one of the first to develop and sell mouth calls. He won many turkey calling contests and placed in the top 10 in Texas many moons ago. Ben was a legendary hunter and a great storyteller.

He once said, “Turkeys in the barnyards is dumb,” and the wild turkey is extremely crafty. We all have that hunting buddy who is so entertaining and a natural at hunting and storytelling. It seems to go hand and hand.

My husband Paul—Turkey Man No. 2, aka The Flounder Hounder—is a natural at hunting and fishing. He called in my first Rio Grande in Uvalde County. It was a large and crafty bird. Paul really had to coax him in. I should have scored it and sent the score to the National Wild Turkey Federation.

Opening weekend in Uvalde County was rainy and drizzly, just annoying and nasty weather. But as always, Paul had a plan. We set up the pop-up blind in our trusty pasture by a windmill. The turkeys had been roosting there.

We got there before daylight and waited until the turkeys would fly off their roosts. Since the weather was so damp and cloudy, I did not know what to expect. Paul started to call with his slate and Lynch box call. With the temperature inversion, noises are a lot clearer, and the sound will travel farther.

Paul used a soft call. It was a slow morning, and the turkeys seem to have moved their roosts permanently this year. He finally called in a hen from a pasture across the road. This hen came charging in, madder than a wet hen. She thought Paul was a “Jolene” and would steal her man. She had a gobbler in tow, but he never gobbled. The gobbler did not get close enough for a good shot and stayed hidden in the bushes. He was a “kept man.”

The rain set in for the weekend. It drizzled this morning, so we continued to hunt on the way back to camp. We would stop and call. Paul would mainly use the box call, but no turkeys gobbled.

I have read when the wind is 3 mph or a little more, the turkeys seem to gobble more. But when you have 12 mph winds, they shut down. A front came in and that is exactly what happened. When the barometric pressure is 29.9 to 30.2 inches, there is more gobbling activity.

Derek Colburt, a turkey hunter and researcher of turkey activity and the weather, said the science of gobbling matters far less than that one simple rule: You can’t kill a turkey if you are not in the woods. So, this is why we hunt, rain or shine. The next day we tried all morning at the pop-up blind. No luck.

That afternoon when we got closer to camp, we tried hunting in the front pasture. Paul finally got a response. We quickly set up under some cedar trees. Paul started to call and had the gobbler interested and coming our way. As the gobbler got closer, he kept strutting behind a large clump of bushes. We could barely see him strutting back and forth. The gobbler tried to get the hen (Paul) to come to him, but Paul played hard-to-get and the gobbler finally started to come our way again. Eventually the gobbler stuck his head around the bush. I took the shot, but I did not get him. Maybe I should have waited, but you never know. He may have retreated without me getting a shot at all. I shot too low and got only feathers. He took off like a rocket and is probably in Mexico by now. Turkeys can run up to 35 miles per hour and fly as fast as 55 mph.

Paul Heughan with the two turkeys he took in Dilley.

The next time we went hunting we invited Dennis. I call him Turkey Man No. 1 because he has many turkeys under his belt with years of experience. He is patient and all knowing when it comes to turkey hunting. He’s a natural, he’s very accommodating, and he’s willing to share his knowledge.

He said the top three lessons of turkey hunting are patience, patience and patience. We have learned a lot about turkey hunting from him. When we got to the lease, Dennis immediately walked in the front pasture to do some scouting and calling. He must have seen some signs because he came back optimistic.

Paul suggested we take off on foot before daylight to the front pasture. It sounded like a good plan. Paul knew where to look for turkeys on this lease. If you’re walking with these guys, you better wear good shoes. I kept up by taking longer strides.

We did not get a response from the front pasture, so we got on the four-wheelers and headed to the back of the lease. We rode down the road a bit and stopped and called. Dennis used a mouth call. It was just phenomenal how he made that mouth call sound like a real turkey hen. He got a gobbler’s response.

We slowly moved towards the gobbler through the woods, but we bumped him. We went back to the road and went to another pasture Paul knew. We set up under some cedar trees. Dennis said to tuck back in as far as we could under the trees.

I asked him if I was back far enough, and he said yes because I was still in the shade. On this beautiful spring morning, there was a slight breeze flowing through the tall oak tree branches. There were still many out-of-state wild birds around that hadn’t flown north yet. The spring birding fallout was over, but I still saw tanagers and the Baltimore oriole. With the warm sun, slight breeze and chirping birds, I started to doze off. It felt like Mother Nature gave me a sleeping pill. Dennis continued to call. He was calling to a gobbler far away in another pasture. He did not

Dennis performing his turkey-calling skills with a slate call.

over-call, but somehow, he knew the turkey would eventually come our way. Dennis used a phone app to see where the turkey might be and how far away. That was very helpful knowing where the turkey was. We were practicing patience. After a few hours Dennis asked Paul to use his box call. I had “Peggy Sue” on the left calling and “Billie Jean” on the right calling. I sat in the middle, ready to shoot. The turkey would talk back but did not seem to commit, so Dennis said to give it 15 more minutes. When we started to pack up and move, a turkey suddenly gobbled from the road, and we quickly got back in position. Dennis called in the turkey, and I had a clean shot. I got my spring Rio Grande turkey! Dennis said it was a good thing he had picked up his two hen decoys, otherwise the gobbler may not have come in that close to us. They may have seen the hen decoys and stayed back out of the shooting lane. The turkey beard measured 9¾ inches. Not a bad bird at all. I am very happy with it. Paul and Dennis agreed that sometimes it’s not just the kill that makes hunting so addictive but the ability to call in a gobbler that gives you a great feeling of success. Carol was successful on Hats off to all hunters, fishermen, bird her turkey hunt, thanks to watchers and people who love the outdoors. her companions. They contribute to the bulk of conservation efforts for the state of Texas.