04/22/1998
By Bill Knight / El Paso Times
The state wildlife management area 26 miles south of Alpine will be offering a chance - albeit from a distance - to get a look at some desert bighorn sheep. The area, which was donated to the state in 1985 for wildlife research and the demonstration of wildlife management, has possibly the best herd in the state, approximately 65 of the once nearly extinct animal.
"The animal was here historically," said wildlife biologist Scott Lerich, who works at the Elephant Mountain facility. "By 1880, there were only about 1,000 to 1,500 left in this state. By around 1940, there were about 300. And by the early 1960s, they were basically gone."
Civilization killed herds
Civilization almost did in the bighorn sheep, an animal that prefers high, rough, mountainous terrain and solitude. Domestic sheep and goat ranching, which brought barbed wire fences, highways, mining, railroads ... "all the things that settled the west almost eliminated them," Lerich said.
"We're still in the restoration mode," said Dr. Jerry Cooke, a biologist who is the Program Director for Upland Wildlife Ecology in Austin. "Only in the 1980s have we really started to become successful. The Texas Bighorn Society has been instrumental in raising funds and actually going out and physically helping us with the project.
"They come up with a quarter- to a half-million dollars right out of their own pocket," Cooke added. "It's the kind of story that brings chills. They really put their money where their mouth is. Here is a group who wants to see (bighorn) sheep in Texas, yet has no real chance of hunting them in their lifetime."
Population reaches 300
Over the last couple of decades, the population has grown to approximately 300 in Texas, scattered in seven different locations - all in the Trans-Pecos area.
"The mountain areas of our state have good habitat for them," Lerich said.
Dan Boone, president of the Texas Bighorn Society, said, "The state didn't have the money or the manpower to bring the desert bighorn back. We have an all-volunteer organization of about 350 members around the state. The desert bighorn are in Nevada, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. Nevada has given us some. We had four 40-acre pens in the Sierra Diablos where the sheep were bred and released.
El Paso vets help
"We've got a couple of members out in El Paso who have really helped us out," said Boone, who lives in Lubbock. "Wiley Heath and Larry Koym (are) a couple of vets who run the Americas Animal Clinic there. We got some disease in the pens and they came out three or four times. They volunteered their time and the medicine. We tried to pay them and they wouldn't accept anything. Really nice guys."
Koym said, "I'd always known there was a place there in the Sierra Diablos. Dr. Heath ran into a classmate of his from high school who was involved. We made three or four trips there to get them well. It was all just related to being in pens. We just got things straightened out and reassured them they would be healthy once they got out of the pens. A lot of sportsmen are involved in this, in saving this species."
The desert bighorn is an impressive animal. The rams weigh between 160 and 180 pounds; a big ewe goes around 120. The rams have large, curving horns; the ewes much smaller ones.
"Elephant Mountain is one of our stronger spots," Cooke said. "We've occasionally trapped sheep there and moved them over to Black Gap at Big Bend National Park. Elephant Mountain has been extremely productive. Black Gap, which is south of Marathon and west of Big Bend, was tough. We had as few as 20-25 at one time. When that is the case, every one that dies is a substantial fraction of the whole herd. We're up to 46-48 now, so we are starting to breathe a little easier."
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