In today's Rapid City Journal...

PIERRE (AP) - The bighorn sheep population in the Black Hills has increased to the point that the state might be able to issue more hunting licenses for them, a state biologist said Friday.

Custer State Park now has about 175 bighorns, but four groups outside the park now total about 300, Ted Benzon told the state Game, Fish & Parks Commission on Friday.

South Dakota issues three bighorn licenses within Custer State Park and three licenses for outside the park.

However, biologists hope more licenses can be issued in future years, according to Benzon, senior big game biologist for the state Department of Game, Fish & Parks.

South Dakota's original wild sheep, the Audubon bighorn, became extinct about 1920. After some unsuccessful attempts to reintroduce sheep to the Black Hills, Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep were successfully reintroduced in Custer State Park about four decades ago.

Between 1985 and 1990, state biologists worked with the U.S. Forest Service on a plan to establish sheep outside Custer State Park, Benzon said.

The state plans to bring in about 30 sheep from New Mexico this fall. More will be obtained from Colorado, Arizona and possibly Montana in the next few years, he said.