I copied and pasted this post from the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Society website for a topic of interest to anyone here.

Obviously the desert sheep herds in the state of Colorado seem to be struggling as of 2004. Tags have been reduced to 3 and population counts are showing the lowest number of sheep spotted in years. The herd in the Dolores River was officially estimated at 50 post hunt count. The official count for the Rattlesnake Canyon herd is at 70 and has been for a few years now according to DOW website stats.

Two guys who have hunted or hunted with someone who drew a tag for the Dolores herd during the last few years, Vic Lauer and Curtis Broughton (RMBS members)have expressed to me what they percieved as a really high amount of mountain lion sign during the times they spent in there. The largest ram that Curtis had seen during preseason scouting was found lion killed by a nonresident deer/elk hunter during the first week of the sheep season. Anecdotal evidence, to be sure, but accurate none-the-less. From a conversation I had with Ellenburger a few years ago, I was under the impression that the mountain lion bag limit(not total quota) in Unit 40 was two per hunter because of the impact of lion predation on the Rattlesnake Canyon herd.

From what I have gathered, disease is suspected in the decline of the Dolores River herd even though none has been found. The two hunters that drew the tag last year were not asked to submit and lung or other tissue samples for evaluation. One of the hunters was a DOW employee so would theoretically "been in the loop." Wouldn't this be an obvious way to perform a minimal investigative procedure for the possibility of disease in the herd. After all these are older age class rams and would have the greatest chance of contracting disease during rut activity which is a month or two prior to the hunt season.

What is the value of the desert sheep herds from strictly a propagation standpoint? How much is invested to produce a viable growing desert sheep herd? If disease is suspected, but none found, is it reasonable to investigate the affects of Mountain lion predation on the herds? As a non-profit fundraising group and an advocate for wild sheep in Colorado, is it reasonable to for the RMBS to ask that the DOW develop a strong grasp of what ails the desert sheep populations in Colorado?
I would appreciate any an all imput on the matter.