Desert Bighorn Sheep(Ovis canadensis nelsoni) in Joshua Tree National Park,
Image Source : Wikimedia . Org
Author Magnus Kjaergaard
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LOS ANGELES |
(Reuters) - A pneumonia outbreak is threatening hundreds of bighorn sheep in California's Mojave National Preserve, and wildlife officials said Monday they see no promising options for saving the state's biggest herd or protecting a nearby population in Nevada.
The disease is believed to have killed 20 bighorn sheep during the past month in the 1.6-million-acre (650,000-hectare) desert preserve, which lies 50 miles southwest of Las Vegas, National Park Service spokeswoman Linda Slater said.
"I suspect that many more are infected," Slater said, adding that the entire herd, numbering as many as 300 animals, is in danger. "The biologists seem to be very pessimistic."
Potential options under consideration include shooting some or all of the remaining members of the herd in a bid to prevent further spread of the disease, or continuing to monitor the situation and essentially let nature run its course, wildlife officials said.
"There really are no good options," Slater said.
Episodic waves of disease have thinned bighorn herds for years. Fewer than 100,000 sheep are believed to roam the rugged mountain slopes of the West today, compared with an estimated 1.2 million head that inhabited the region at one time.
A series of nine separate outbreaks across five western states, including Nevada, in the winter of 2009-2010 claimed roughly 1,000 bighorn sheep, prized as game animals for the prominent curled horns of the adult males, or rams.
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