2014 Bighorn Transplants

From January 2014 through January 2015 Utah FNAWS, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Nevada Department of Wildlife, and many other volunteers and partners have been busy capturing and relocating bighorns within Utah. A huge THANK YOU to all involved in these transplants. They take an incredible amount of planning and work to accomplish. This is your money at work, this is yet another chapter in Utah’s lengthy history of proactive transplant projects. In addition to these transplant projects, UFNAWS and the Utah DWR also conducted several projects in bighorn herds throughout the state where we captured sheep and conducted blood and other health assessment tests on bighorns, then released them in the same locations. These blood profiles we are obtaining on more of our Utah sheep herds has helped detect exposure to disease pathogens and will allow for better management decisions in the future.

Transplants within just the last 12 months:
• 49 Zion Desert bighorn to Nokai Dome, South San Juan.
• 6 Desert bighorn from Big Bend near Moab to John’s Canyon, South San Juan.
• 25 Rocky Mountain bighorn from Range Creek to Goslin Mountain.
• 47 California bighorn from Antelope Island and the Newfoundland Mountains to the Oak Creek Mountains.
• 71 Desert bighorn from Muddy Mountains, Nevada to new areas within the Escalante unit.
• 26 Desert bighorn from Zion to the northern Pine Valley.
Total sheep transplanted in Utah in the past 12 months = 224