Nebraska Bighorn Sheep Lamb Capture!

After moving to Montana over 25 years ago to work in an elk camp I had one item on my bucket list.  I wanted to hunt Bighorn Sheep.  It just happened that I lived a few miles from Montana’s infamous Rock Creek herd.  I would always take the long way around to camp in hopes of spotting those big mature rams.  I never drew the tag and the bucket list grew, but I never visit Granite County without making a trip up Rock Creek to look for sheep.  Unfortunately, Bighorn sheep are extremely susceptible to disease.  Lambs are also prey to large predators as well.  Nebraska is working to protect their herd from disease outbreaks through constant monitoring and research.

“Eighteen times in recent weeks, a team of wildlife biologists dashed into the hills and canyons of northwest Nebraska in a race-the-clock campaign to capture newborn Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep to help the species survive an ongoing pneumonia scourge, the Omaha World-Herald reported.”

“The conservation cowboys swooped in on the wobbly legged lambs with nets – or desperation tackles – and quickly slid a sock with a cut-out toe over the lambs’ heads to blindfold and calm the bighorn babies.”

“Then they slipped an expandable collar equipped with a transmitter around the neck. They swabbed the critters’ nostrils and throats for evidence of pathogens and plucked a few hairs for DNA analysis before plopping them into a plastic grocery bag to hang from a scale to determine weight.”

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