Bighorn Sheep Herds Moving to New Heights

After efforts to transplant wild sheep stalled last year, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks may now have two project sites in southwest Montana.

The FWP Commission on Thursday gave the department the go-ahead to make a second attempt at introducing wild sheep into the northern Madison Range and to start a study of the possibility of a similar effort on Livingston Peak in the Paradise Valley.

FWP had planned to capture wild sheep from the Quake Lake herd at the southern end of the Madison Range this past winter and transplant them to the Wolf Creek drainage farther north.

But in February, biologists confirmed that three members of the Quake Lake herd had died of pneumonia. Concerned that other wild sheep were also infected and wanting to avoid moving sick sheep, biologists canceled the transplant.

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