Southern Colorado bighorn sheep take helicopter journey to new dwelling

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – Some bighorn sheep have a brand new dwelling in southern Colorado as native wildlife officers are working exhausting to maintain the species alive.

11 Information spoke with Colorado Parks and Wildlife about their months-long undertaking to relocate bighorn sheep. The story begins within the Forties.

“Our native herd… is the Rampart Vary herd. These sheep specifically have a form of humorous backstory wherein it was the results of a failed relocation effort,” mentioned CPW terrestrial biologist Ty Woodward.

In response to CPW, the Rampart bighorn sheep initially had been destined for launch on Pikes Peak. However, the truck carrying them from Tarryall in 1946 broke down in Inexperienced Mountain Falls. So, the drivers merely launched the 14 sheep on board, hoping they might head up the mountain. As an alternative, they discovered their means north and east to the Rampart Vary, in the end selecting the west fringe of Colorado Springs close to Backyard of the Gods Park.

The story goes even farther again although, as bighorn sheep had been on the point of extinction within the Eighties attributable to illness and market looking. In response to CPW, a ban on market looking for sheep 1885 helped shield the few hundred remaining bighorns however the species wanted additional assist to rebound.

Extra lately, after baiting the bighorn sheep for weeks in a internet, about 60 CPW wildlife officers, biologists, workers and volunteers met in early February to seize and blindfold every of the sheep. They get inspected by a veterinarian workers, get blood samples taken after which had been transported by way of trailer right down to Beaver Creek State wildlife space.

In response to CPW, the 21 bighorns in the end chosen for relocation had been positioned in trailers, trucked about 90 minutes south after which flown by helicopter to distant Beaver Creek Canyon close to Victor in Teller County in an effort to reestablish a sturdy herd in an space that traditionally held a excessive variety of bighorn sheep.

“That helicopter took sheep in numbers of both 3 or 4 in baggage that maintain them so that they’re immobilized, whereas they’re blindfolded and transported them to the relocation or the discharge web site the place we’ve got workers on the bottom that work to launch sheep there of their new dwelling,” mentioned Woodward.

About 130 sheep are nonetheless within the Rampart Vary herd, and are planning to remain there for now.

“The Rampart Vary herd is very productive and one in all our stronger herds within the state. However, the habitat the place we relocated to, traditionally supported massive herds of sheep. These days, that herd has been struggling in order that’s why the choice was made to move these sheep and transplant them to Beaver Creek space the place hopefully they’ll bolster the numbers there,” mentioned Woodward.

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