Domestic vs Wild Sheep Herds

[littlebighorn]

My son (bighornhunter) who studies wildlife biology, came across this site, showing the interfacing wild/domestic sheep ranges in the western US. Some of you Sheep nuts might be interested in the results.
No wonder we are having die-offs in wild sheep herds.
I thought I would share if anyone is interested.

http://wolves.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/wafwa-report-summarizes-pneumonia-outbreaks-in-bighorn-sheep/

 

[NVBighorn]

Good stuff. Thanks for the link.

 

[Thunderclapper]

Sad. During a sheep hunt in Montana this fall we saw a couple different Ewes coughing severely.

 

[Zeke]

Littlebighorn and bighornhunter

Thanks for the info.

It's a battle that will be hard to win. The livestock folks are usually on our side for most fights. It would be like fighting among ourselves, sort of.

We need to buy out the grazing right whenever we can to keep the contact to a minimum. It will be a hard and expensive problem to fix.

What are the thoughts of the other sheep nuts out there?

Best regards, Zeke

 

[HEVISHOT]

Thats how all those sheep in Elko died last year. I would like to see demestic sheep banned from public lands.

 

[440sixpack]

Grazing allotments go way back and give the holder a lot of rights, I have a USFS one myself.

The only way to get sheep off the public is to buy them out, there isn't much money in sheep and the losses on public land sheep to predators makes it a losing game in most cases where wild sheep live.

We've been fighting this problem in Oregon with domestic sheep and wild sheep for years. most of the time some talking and some cash will cure it, and it has to be cured if you want the wild sheep to live.