Bighorn sheep captured at Virgin River Rec Area

CEDAR POCKET, Ariz. -

Two dozen bighorn sheep have been captured at the Virgin River Recreation Area in northwestern Arizona and taken to a new location in the Kanab Creek drainage.

Arizona Game and Fish supervisor Bob Price says the relocation cost about 40-thousand dollars.

The goal is to reestablish herds in areas where bighorn sheep historically roamed.

Helicopter gunners with nets were used to catch the animals yesterday.

They aimed for one ram for every four ewes. Some of the sheep were ear-tagged and given radio collars.

The bighorn sheep typically wander along the Arizona Strip from the Virgin and Beaver Dam mountains to the north end of the Black Rock Mountains, about ten miles south of Mesquite, Nevada.