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Bad news in annual bighorn sheep report

Wyoming News Exchange 18 hrs ago

DUBOIS (WNE) — The National Bighorn Sheep Center in Dubois held its annual meeting Feb. 22. Over 50 people congregated at the Headwaters Center for the event.

Wyoming Game and Fish Lander Region Biologist Greg Anderson provided the annual update on the Whiskey Mountain bighorn sheep herd Feb. 22 at the National Bighorn Sheep Center’s annual meeting.

Attendees were warned in advance the news was not good.


After a decade of relative stability– in some years there were modest population increases– Anderson advised that lamb recruitment underwent a dramatic decline in 2017.

Recruitment is a term ascribed to those lambs or any wildlife newborn which survives long enough to be counted as a member of the population.

“Right now there are about 750 sheep on the hoof...and our objective is 1,350,” Anderson said.


The population estimate work which is performed after the hunting season is based on those sheep actually seen and other gathered data as well. Anderson sadly reported that he counted this winter “the fewest number I have seen.” He has been working with the Whiskey Mountain herd for almost 15 years.

Anderson displayed a bar graph going back to 2001 reflecting lamb recruitment within the Whiskey Mountain herd unit as a whole and in the Hunt Area 10 herd which is a local portion of the larger population. He explained the HA 10 recruitment was a strong indicator of what was happening with the whole herd unit. “Where goes HA 10, there goes the whole herd.”

After the peak years of 2012 and 2014 in which the recruitment was as high as just over 40 lambs per 100 ewes, the decline was characterized from “somewhat alarming” in 2015 to “very alarming...miserable and scary” now. The 2017 recruitment was down to only six lambs per 100 ewes in HA 10.

Predation.

it could have been the 900' foot of snow last winter.
this winter was mild up through January, and February has been brutal.
super cold weather and now deep heavy snow rolling through.
it's getting a bit late in the year to stress the ewe's and have any kind of lamb success.
last year was just snow and more snow and then it would snow to make sure.

I gather sheep are transplanted in Wyoming, how does this factor into the numbers? Think we even sent some one time.

Grizz

Any idea what the true cause is? Sheep are after all very susceptible to disease or bad winters.

Lamar,

900 feet of snow? No sorry not buying that. More likely measured in inches.

Wyoming's sheep have been translplanted around, but they are not Alberta's sheep.

Unlike Montana and New Mexico who have primarily Alberta genetics, most of the sheep in Wyoming are related to sheep from the Dubois area.

What kills wild sheep lambs well cougar,bears ,wolves ,coyotes,bobcats ,eagles ,ravens they peck their eyes out then.their brains ,disease from tame sheep ,rattle snakes from bites ,owls,hawks it's about 20 predators to one prey.This country over protects the predators .We hunters are last on the predator list these days .A friend Is going to work for Nevada on predator control and see what's in them .I did not believe the ravens could kill baby caribou in Alaska till I saw it with my eyes .They get them in pastures peck their eyes out and get their brains next .Eagles pick.them up and drop them then eat them .Owls bad hawks usually get newborn ones .We have too many predators protected these days !