From: http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/11/12/ne...8725722300053a11.txt

Agency plans bighorn transplant

By RENA DELBRIDGE
Star-Tribune correspondent
WHEATLAND -- It happened by chance, but the Wyoming Game and Fish Department isn’t one to look the proverbial gift horse in the mouth.

The agency hopes to transplant 45 bighorn sheep from the Thompson Falls area in northwest Montana to the Laramie Peak area, pending public approval.

The sheep were originally destined for release into the Seminoe Mountains northeast of Rawlins. However, severe drought conditions there curtailed the planned transplant. So, the bighorns were offered to Game and Fish wildlife biologist Martin Hicks in Platte County.

“This just kind of fell into our lap,” he said.

The transplant should help boost the 200-head Laramie Peak herd by improving genetic diversity, Hicks said.

The herd, which has actually divided into seven sub-herds, isn’t reproducing well, Hicks said. Drought may be one explanation for poor numbers of lambs surviving each year.

“Our lamb ratios have really dropped starting in 2002,” he said. “Of course, that’s when our drought really started coming on, too.”

And, minor cases of pasteurella, a bacteria which may be transmitted from domestic sheep to wild sheep, have passed through. Pasteurella causes ewes to not reproduce, Hicks explained, adding that bringing new genes into a herd can ease disease repercussions.

Bighorn sheep originally roamed the Laramie Mountains and the plains to the east, Hicks said. Settlement drove the animals to higher range. By the turn of the century, hunting had decimated the animals in the area.

In 1964 sheep were reintroduced to Laramie Peak, with six subsequent transplants from the Whiskey Basin herd near Dubois, ending in 1989. Out of the 171 animals brought in, a herd of 200 has grown, Hicks said. Game and Fish objectives call for a 500-head herd.

“Sheep were once here,” Hicks said. “People enjoy observing them, watching them, hunting them.” And they are an important indicator of habit conditions, he added.

Laramie Peak’s steep, rugged outcrops, which protect ewes from predators during lambing, led Game and Fish to create a wildlife habitat management area about 35 miles west of Wheatland. The 2002 Hensel Fire cleaned up dense conifer stands through the Ashenfelder Basin and several adjacent mountains, opening new corridors that offer sheep better chances against predators, Hicks explained.

By placing GPS radio collars on 30 of the transplants, Game and Fish hopes to gain new information on how the sheep use corridors through the recently burned areas. After a year and a half, biologists will retrieve the collars and download the data, Hicks said.

The area is also prime for a fresh transplant because of the public access available. Game and Fish has issued hunt tags in Area 19 since 1969. On average, four tags are issued annually, although some years that figure has jumped to eight.

If the public’s reception is positive, the agency hopes to transplant the sheep in January, Hicks said. Response from area landowners has been generally positive, with a few concerns that the population could boom and become destructive to hay fields, or that drought may hinder success.

“It’s dry everywhere, and sheep evolve with drought,” Hicks said. “Conditions look favorable to release in there.”

Each sheep costs $3,000 to transplant. Funding comes through the Wyoming Governors’ Big Game License Coalition and the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, headquartered in Cody.