WILD SHEEP ON THE FRINGE

BY CHESTER MOORE

Faint impressions of bighorn tracks paralleled the rocky trail I was climbing.

A few made in slightly softer soil had better definition but for the most part, it would take a trained eye to notice them.

It was 8:30 a.m. and already 84 degrees so there wasn’t much wildlife activity. I did see a flock of Merriam’s turkeys early on but they were on a creek bottom near the base of the mesa, where big live oaks provided sanctuary from the oppressive heat.

My goal was to make it to the top and see if I could find bighorns and photograph a very hopeful sign in the world of wild sheep.

This mesa wasn’t in the high deserts of Arizona or the southern tier of Colorado where desert bighorns dwell. It was in the Panhandle of Oklahoma and I was searching for Rocky Mountain bighorns.

Yes, in Oklahoma.

According to an article in The Southwestern Naturalist, natural history was made in the Sooner State in 2012.

“On 21 September 2012, a dried carcass of a bighorn sheep was found near Black Mesa in the Oklahoma Panhandle. A complete skeleton was salvaged and represents the first specimen record of the species in the state of Oklahoma.”

Driving back to Texas from a Colorado fly fishing trip, I decided to make a wide swing out to Black Mesa. I unfortunately never saw sheep there but did find plenty of tracks and scat, signs a herd had been there recently.

This began a quest to learn more about sheep on the outer limits of their range and ended up becoming a deep dive into how sheep are being pushed to the fringes in many areas by a variety of factors both positive and negative.

Sooner State Sheep

Black Mesa State Park and Nature Preserve is located in Oklahoma’s panhandle along the border with Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas and is operated by the Nature Conservancy.

According to Nature Conservancy officials, Black Mesa takes its name from the layer of black lava rock that coated the mesa about 30 million years ago.

“Visitors to the preserve can hike to the top of the plateau, Oklahoma’s highest point at 4,973 feet above sea level. The Black Mesa area supports 31 state rare species; 23 plants and eight animals. Here, the Rocky Mountains meet the shortgrass prairie, a unique area where many species are at the easternmost or westernmost portions of their range.”

“It’s pretty amazing to have bighorns showing up in Oklahoma. Our state has rich biodiversity ranging from whitetails to pronghorns and these bighorns have certainly become something we’re quite proud of,” said Todd Craighead, of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.

For 20 years, Craighead has hosted the state’s Outdoor Oklahoma television show and been a staff writer for the magazine of the same name and said following the bighorn story has been exciting.

“These sheep are trading in and out of the state from Colorado. They spend a lot of time around Black Mesa, where they are pretty isolated and have by Oklahoma standards at least, some great sheep habitat.”

While Oklahoma is at least in modern times a new part of the bighorn equation, another state on the fringe of their range may even be more surprising.

Nebraska’s Bighorns

While many Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF) members will be familiar with the herd of bighorns in Nebraska’s northwestern region, very few others would make the connection between the state and sheep.

Known more for growing corn, college football, and pheasant hunting, Nebraska is on the eastern edge of historical bighorn habitat where WSF has funded research and translocations.

After being extirpated from the state due to disease issues, initial restoration efforts began in 1981 and despite lingering disease problems, the herd has held on.

In September 2022, the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission (NGPC) successfully captured, tested, collared, and released 28 bighorn sheep in the Wildcat Hills as part of a two-phase project to enhance the state’s bighorn sheep population. The project was funded by WSF and its chapters and affiliates.

“Phase One was to identify, via helicopter capture, disease-free individuals for a relocation trap and transfer scheduled for February 2023,” said Kevin Hurley, WSF’s VP for Conservation.

“NGPC also collected biological samples to compare three different disease testing methods against each other, to improve the overall speed and reliability of testing, something all WSF’s agency partners can use going forward.”

Current population estimates are at around 275 sheep with efforts to monitor disease and predation as well as learn more about their use of habitat crucial to long-term survival.

Sheep Don’t Read Maps

Wildlife managers concerned with creating range and distribution maps of animals are meticulous. Species management hinges on their decisions and in the case of endangered animals, citing their range can carry heavy legal consequences.

With that said wild sheep don’t read maps.

Take, for example, a recent report of a few Rocky Mountain bighorns that wandered into Texas from neighboring New Mexico. The herd had been seen a pretty good way from their normal range along the New Mexico side of the border and decided to cross over near Clayton, TX.

Arizona Fish & Game Department officials published some impressive movements of bighorns in their state at Tuscon.com.

“For example, in the late 1980s, when wild sheep still occupied the Santa Catalina Mountains near Tucson, a collared ram released in the Galiuro Mountains across the San Pedro River showed up with the other sheep on Pusch Ridge. The ram had traveled about 80 miles through dense forest, riparian habitat, and desert—areas incompatible with sheep. Another ram from the Superstition Mountains near Mesa, Arizona, made a 100-mile trek to the Catalinas.”

Another interesting story from Texas shows how determined bighorns can be to inhabit a certain area and move long distances to get there.

In the early 2000s, a herd of bighorns was captured at Elephant Mountain and translocated to Black Gap WMA which is about 50 miles away as a crow flies.

Many of those bighorns ended up back at Elephant Mountain.

“They seemed to want to be back on Elephant Mountain pretty badly. If a sheep wants to go somewhere, it will do its best to get there,” said Froylan Hernandez, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, desert bighorn sheep program leader.

“Most of the time they stay in a much smaller range but from time to time sheep will make big moves.”

In 1800 bighorn range was from the Pacific Coast to the edge of the Great Plains.

That’s still technically their range, but development, the presence of domestic herds, and other factors have relegated sheep to range within the historic range. That means the fringes of habitat are not just interstate travel but moving out of ideal habitat into dangerous areas.

A journey like those sheep made from Black Gap to Elephant Mountain included dangers that did not exist 200 years ago.

Weather Pressure

Sheep, like most wildlife, have always moved in and out of the edges of their most widely used habitat.

In recent years, however, intense weather conditions are changing the landscape considerably.

In 2010, the National Park Service (NPS) began to study the link between population declines of desert bighorn sheep and the effects of increased temperatures and drought.

“Climatic variables such as rising temperatures and decreased precipitation affect the availability of vegetation and dependable sources of spring water for the desert bighorn sheep. Water is critical to desert bighorn sheep survival. Lactating ewes need to drink almost every day. Animals like desert bighorn sheep also need large areas of land in which to mix herds.”

WSF and its affiliates have funded and constructed hundreds of guzzlers in the Southwest to help during times of drought, which have been intense in recent years.

Bighorns outside of Las Vegas, NV regularly visit suburban parks and neighborhoods but this is greatly exacerbated by extended drought periods. Such forays into suburbia expose them to roadkill, domestic dogs, and interactions with domestic sheep and goats.

Weather-related issues are also causing major issues with Alaska’s Dall sheep population.

Populations are down, and it varies by range, but populations are down 50-70 percent statewide. While many previous declines are believed to be the result of a single event, as many as six adverse winter weather events have occurred over the last decade, coupled with some dry summers.

This has caused some changes in habitat usage and while still under study, it seems to be a challenge that is facing sheep throughout the world, even at the very top.

A study conducted by researchers with the Safari Club International (SCI) Foundation shows some shocking problems in Tajikistan in the heart of Marco Polo sheep habitat.

“The study area for the Marco Polo

Sheep Survey in eastern Tajikistan ranges from 14,700 to 24,000 feet in elevation, an altitude known as the “death zone” among mountaineers. Winter temperatures hover between -15 and -20°C in January, making the high altitude and cold temperatures a perfect study area for high-alpine habitats.”

“However, in this area known as the “Roof of the World,” the massive glaciers and permafrost responsible for maintaining a healthy hydrological cycle are changing rapidly. As a result of lower seasonal snow packs, fresh water and soil moisture are in decline and it is affecting the wildlife and their habitat.”

Lower areas are rendered essentially barren by environmental changes. This is causing wildlife ranging from Marco Polo sheep to Siberian ibex, brown bears, and snow leopards to climb higher into the “death zone” of super-high altitudes at 22,000 feet and higher to exist.

In ideal areas of massive, habitable areas, wild sheep have plenty of options for food, water, and minerals. Now as they and other species compete for limited resources scientists are documenting some interesting scenarios.

In Glacier National Park, researchers captured a mountain goat running bighorns off of a mineral lick. Researchers from Colorado State University have shown goats win in as much as 95 percent of these conflicts.

Aoudad have been observed running bighorns off of guzzlers in drought-stricken areas of Texas. These large, strong invasive exotics are a potential threat to the bighorns in Oklahoma as there are established populations along the Texas/ Oklahoma border.

In Nevada, California, and Utah similar competition and habitat degradation comes from feral horses and burros that far outnumber and outmuscle native bighorns.

Lessons Learned

What started as a desire to photograph bighorns in Oklahoma, opened me up to the delicate nature of bighorn habitat and how the fringes of their range are impacted by many factors.

As I headed down from Black Mesa, I remembered something learned on an expedition to New Mexico the previous year.

New Mexico’s Las Conchas fire which consumed more than 150,000 acres created treeless habitat in the mountains that is perfect for bighorns. That area had no bighorns for years.

Controlled fire is a practice that benefits sheep along with other wildlife and although that fire was the result of poor range management and weather conditions, it did offer an opportunity.

According to Nicole Tatman with the New Mexico Game & Fish Department, they released Rocky Mountain bighorns near Bandelier National Monument after the fire altered the landscape and it has been successful.

“Our Rocky Mountain bighorn herds are expanding into suitable habitat from areas we have released them over the last decade,” she said.

This was a great reminder that even the aftermath of tragedy can bring hope when conservationminded people take action.

On a global level, wild sheep are facing more challenges than ever. As we have documented, weatherrelated issues are causing habitat and behavior change from desert bighorns to argalis.

But it is at the local level where positive action can be taken and that’s where WSF and its affiliates excel.

Caring enough about small herds in Nebraska to raise funds to help expand them into other suitable habitats is what will help sheep, even on the very fringe of their range, continue to live on the mountains and inspire generations to come. WS