PHOTO BY JIM YOAKUM A COMPILATION OF PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE 16TH ANNUAL MEETING, APRIL 5-7, 1972, AT TUCSON, ARIZONA. Edi toria1 Commi ttee: Charles Hansen , (Chairman) Norman Simmons William Graf Ray Breechbi 11 Jack Helvie Drawings by: Pat Hansen Special Contributor: U. S. Atomic Energy Commission Nevada Operations Office Las Vegas, Nevada Copies avai 1abl e by writing the Desert Bighorn Council 1500 N. Decatur Blvd. Las Vegas, Nevada 89108 THE KING OF DESERT BEAST Does the desert have a ki,ng of beasts? Who rules the plains and barren peaks that shimmer in the sun? Authority is given to many who crawl; as the rattler or the scorpion who mean it when they say "don't tread on me. " But who would give royalty to such as these. Mountain lion roam the desert edges or prowl across in winter when ics cool. But hers no desert king of beasts because he hasnvr got the guts to stay, Thirst driven beasts at desert water In summer he may retreat to sit express a sort of priority beside some mountain pool. and they -all give way to the herds of collared pig--the peccary. The coyote is a canine con man living off the desert; But pigs is pigs and I can't see Or in some way conning a living giving them the cloak of royalty. from you and me. But would he live as high My vote goes to the most elusive. without us One that most are lucky to even see, it would be interesting to see. The bighorn goes about his The burro overcomes the desert's threat. business in the roughest kind He dominates the toughest habitat, of topography and truly is a desert rat. and even seems to live where But, a choice of him water is a rarity. would not be mine a crown between his ears A king yet he asks no tribute, would be asinine. In fact he only asks to be, far away from you and me. He only asks that the desert stay the same. Unchanged neither by us nor the creatures we herd, or pet, or tame. Charles R. Hungerford DESERT BIGHORN COUNCIL 1972 TPANSACTIOES Page REPORT OF THE FIRST NORTH AMERICAN WILD SHEEP CONFERENCE ............................O.O............ Warren Kelly 1 CENSUS OF DESERT BIGHORN SHEEP WITH TIME-LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY ,.......GDYOO....O.D.o~OD.DDDDDso.......O Jack B, Helvie 3 1971 WILD HORSE AND BURRO ACT ...................... Roscoe E. Ferris 9 INTER-SPECIES EMBRYO TRANSFER IN TZE PROFAGATION OF RARE SPECIES OF WILD SHEEP ............ Thomas D. Bunch, Warren C. Foote and J. Juan Spillett WINTER FOOD HABITS OF CALIFORNIA BIGHORN SHEEP IN THE SIERRA NEVADA ...6.0..0000~.00e0.DOoC~~D0.0 David 3. Dunaway THE STATUS OF DESERT BIGHORN SHEEP ON THE PAPAGO INDIAN RESERVATION .........e................ David E. Brown HAZITAT OF THE MEXICAN BIGHORN SHEEP IN THE BIG EATCHET MOUNTAINS OF NEW MEXICO ..... Robert D. Jacobsen THE ARIZONA DESERT BIGHORN SHEEP SOCIETY, INC. ..... Robert D. Carson CONCLUSION OF THE BIGHORN INVESTIGATION I& CALIFORNIA .........................D.D.~.D Richard A. Weaver NEVADA'S DESERT BIGHORN SHEEP STATUS REPORT 1971 ..... Jack R. Cooper DISEASE LOSSES IN DESERT BIGHORN SHEEP BLACK GAP AREA .................................... Tommy L. Hailey PROGRESS REPORT - LAVA RZDS BIZHORN RE-ESTABLTSHMENT ....................... James A. Blaisdell A COOPERATIVE EFFORT WITH THE ARIZONA GAME AND FISH DEPARTMENT ................................. Daniel F. Schadle DEVELOPMENT OF PERMANENT WILDLIFE WATER SUPPLIES JOSHUA TREE SATIaNAL MONUMENT ...................... ?eteu Lo Farry CAPTURE OF FREE-RANGING DESERT SHEEP IN SONORA, MEXICO c.....................D.~....O.OD... Gerald H. Gates FRATERNITY OF THE DESERT SIGHOR??-NEVADA ................. Carl Ciliax STATUS OF DESERT BLGHORN IN ARIZONA .....,.l..oo....m,.o Paul M. Webb PiAN'S INVASION INTO T'ilE BIGilORNFS HAijlTAi .......... Yaines R. DeForge dBSi2ISVATiONS TAKEFi DURXNG THE BIRTH OF CANDY'S 1972 LAMB ........................... George M. Constantino ATTENDANCE ROSTER ................................................... DBC OFFICERS, COMMITTEES AND AWARDS ................................. DESERT BIGHORN COUNCIL 1972 TRANSACTIONS REPORT ON THE FIRST NORTH Al'ERICAi'*I WID SHEEP Warren Kelly Wildlife Biologist U.S. Forest Service The first North American Wild Sheep Conference was held April 14-15, 1971, at Colorado State University at Fort Collins. I must admit I was pleased when selected to represent the Desert Bighorn Council at this meeting. A total of 111 people registered for the conference. Thirty-one of those attending the conference were Forest Service representatives. This was not surprising since the Forest Service is the land management agency controlling a considerable amount of Rocky Mountain bighorn habitat. There were fewer representatives from state wildlife agencies than I expected.. Colorado, as could be expected, was well represented with 28 representatives. There was only one from Arizona and New Mexico; two from Wyoming and Canada. Others attending were representatives of National Fark Service, Bureau of Land Management, Universities and those just interested fn bighorn sheep. Co-Chairman, Gene Decker of Colorado State University and Wayne Sanfort, Colorado Division of Game, Fish and Parks, developed and excellent program. The agenda was divided into four sections; management and current status; physiology and pathology; research techniques; and management problems, procedures and needs. The first section was status reports from five states; Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. I served as moderator of this panel and had an opportunity to give the objectives and history of the Desert Bighorn Council. The second section; physiology and pathology, presented information on lung worm infections and the pneumonia complex. The third section; research techniques, dealt with food habits, marking, immobilization of sheep with drugs, and habitat analysis by multispectrol remote sensing. DESERT BIGHORN COUNCIL 1972 TRAKSACTIONS The last section; management problems, procedures and needs, gave an insight to problems in managing three bighorn sheep herds. The North American Wild Sheep Conference was an interesting, well executed meeting. I can see this is a meeting that should be continued. I would like to recommend to the Program Chairman of the next North American Wild Sheep Conference that he read the table of Contents of the D.B.C. Transactions. Over 300 papers can cover a great amount of information and there is little need of repeating what has already been published unless new information can be added to the subject. I want to thank the D.BOC. for sending me to this conference as their representative. DESERT BIGHORN COUNCIL 1972 TRANSACTIONS CE16US OF DESERT BIGtIORi'i SHEEP WITH TIFF-LAPSE PHOTOGWHY Jack Be Helvie Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife Desert National Wildlife Range Las Vegas, Nevada Abstract: Two time-lapse movie cameras were placed at 13 water-holes on the Desert National Wildlife Range during the summer of 1971. Intervalometers on the cameras were adjusted to expose one frame of film each minute. Depending upon the type of film used, a camera was left at each waterhole for a period of either three or five days. At the end of these pre-determined periods cameras and exposed film were picked up and the film developed. The developed film was then viewed through an edi-viewer and under a low power binocular microscope to facilitate identification and classification of sheep and other forms of wildlife. This technique proved to be quite successful for recording wildlife use at waterholes during daylight hours. A total of 99 sheep, 23 deer, five golden eagles, three coyotes, two red-tailed hawks, and one mountain lion were photographed. Ninety-two (93%) of the sheep photographed were classified. INTRODUCTION The initiation of management on any piece of land usually involves four consectltive steps. The first step is census, and is defined as "measuring the stock on hand" (Leopold, 1933). The search for adequate desert bighorn sheep census techniques has been going on for many years. More than 15 different types of wildlife camera-recorders have been devised and used in the field with satisfactory results (Drobnick, 1969). fersonnel at the Desert National Wildlife Range became very interested in wildlife camera- recorders after listening to a paper presented by Rudy Drobnick at the 1969 Desert Bighorn Council meeting. Subsequently we experimented with vibration- sensor photography during the summer of 1970, and then learned of a "home made" time-lapse camera unit that was being used by Erwin L. Boeker in Arizona (Boeker, personal communication)^ After muck investigation into the various aspects of time-lapse photography, we purchased two Minolta* cameras 'kBrand names are for the benefit of the reader and do not imply endorsement. DESERT BIGHORN COUNCIL 1972 TRANSACTIONS with intervalometers and used thex for bighorn census at waterholes with good success during the suxmer of 1971. All personnel at Desert National Wildlife Range worked on this study and contributed to its success. MATERIALS The camera used in this study is a Super 8 millimeter movie camera described as the Minolta Autopak-8 D4. The camera is equipped with a Rokkor f 1.8 zoom lens that is continuously variable from 915 mm to 38 mm (4x1. The shutter speed is 1/40 second when taking single frame exposures. Dimensions of the camera are 2 3/4 x 5 x 8 inches, and it weighs 39 ounces. Power source for the camera comes from four AA size 1.5 volt dry batteries. Retail cost of this camera is about $175. To conduct time-lapse photography it is necessary to use a Minolta Intervalometer-P, which is a repeating timer. This intervalometer enables the camera to do time-lapse filming at rates from 0.5 through 60 seconds between single-frame exposures. The intervalometer is cylindrical, measures 2 x 5 inches, and weighs eight ounces. Retail cost of the intervalometer is approximately $40. It is powered by five AA size 1.5 volt dry batteries.