Records of Wild Sheep Translocations United States and Canada 1922-Present
RECORDS OF WILD SHEEP TRANSLOCATIONS UNITED STATES AND CANADA 1922-PRESENT WILD SHEEP WORKING GROUP June 2015 Photos courtesy of Vic Coggins (ODFW, Retired), Mike Cox (NDOW), Todd Nordeen (NGPC), Earl Nottingham (TPWD), California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and North Dakota Game and Fish Department. Suggested Citation: Wild Sheep Working Group. 2015. Records of Wild Sheep Translocations-United States and Canada, 1922-Present. Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, USA. INTRODUCTION Historically, the distribution of wild sheep in North America extended from northern Alaska, Yukon, and Northwest Territories southward through British Columbia and Alberta, Canada to northern Mexico, and from the Pacific coast as far east as western North Dakota, western South Dakota, western Nebraska, and western Texas. Reliable population estimates of wild sheep in North America prior to the 1800s are not available, but numbers in the hundreds of thousands have been reported. Through time, the numbers and distribution of thinhorn sheep (Ovis dalli) are thought to have remained stable. Following settlement of western North America, however, bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) numbers declined rapidly and that species was extirpated from much of its historic range. Translocations have played an integral role in wild sheep restoration and management. Most jurisdictions that manage bighorn sheep view translocations as a technique necessary for restoring those specialized ungulates to historic habitat, establishing new populations within suitable, but unoccupied habitat, and augmenting existing populations. However, translocation is not a widely used practice in thinhorn sheep conservation. Historic records indicate fewer than 10 translocations of thinhorn sheep have occurred in the past, and none have occurred across jurisdictional boundaries (i.e., Alaska, Yukon Territory, Northwest Territories, or British Columbia).
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