Bitterroot Bighorns have pneumonia
- Thread starter shoots-straight
- Start date
shoots-straight
Well-known member
On Sunday my hunting partner and I saw a BigHorn Ram bedded along the hwy early as we went hunting. I told him someone must have hit the sheep the night before. They never bed down there at night. We saw the same sheep in the back of the Bio's truck when we went through the ckeck station. This is really bad news. Pisses me off that a few half arsed ranchers can have this impact. One ranch I know up the east fork has like 10 or 12 domestic sheep.
elk_hunter
Active member
I wonder if this is purely natural or if there is some connection to domestic animals.
shoots-straight
Well-known member
Usually it's a certain type of pneumonia called "Pasturella" ( I think that's how it's spelled). It's transmitted directly from domestic sheep. It's a virus that's always living on them and doesn't hurt them. When the two mix, the wild sheep always die.
elk_hunter
Active member
Wow; that is a damn shame. Simple solution to disallow mixing of domestic animals with the wild ones (e.g. keep domestic sheep on private, fenced ranches)? Or do ranchers have locked-in lease rights with the state that can't be broken?
NVLongbow
Active member
There was a great article on this in the Nevada Big Horns Unlimited http://nevadabighornsunlimited.org/index.html news letter that was mailed out earlier this week. Unfortunately we don't put it on our website.
The summary is as you said; very detrimental to the wild sheep. Contact with domestic goats has the same result.
The summary is as you said; very detrimental to the wild sheep. Contact with domestic goats has the same result.
Do a search on the Highland bighorns, its amazing how they're repeatedly killed off and re-planted. It was at one time the biggest herd in the state.
shoots-straight
Well-known member
The local Bio, picked up three yesterday, one Ram was 9 years old. What a shame a hunter hadn't had the chance to hang him on a wall. We saw one bedded along side the road again this morning. She was dead by the time we got back. A Big Ram was with her last night, he was bedded up the hill a couple hundred yards up. Black birds and eagles all over the sheep winter range. Sad.
http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/article_58d9f380-eebc-11de-b4ee-001cc4c002e0.html
What do you guys think?
What do you guys think?
There is still about 100 sheep missing and un accounted for. They have not turned up dead, but have not been seen alive. Hopefully when FWP starts flying the mule deer surveys hopefully they will show up. If that 100 is gone, plus what has been culled and found dead, well that would spell disaster.
