Bighorn to be transplanted from Nevada to Utah

Thursday, Jan. 25, 2001 | 8:54 a.m.

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and the Nevada Department of Wildlife are cooperating in the effort to move 20 bighorn sheep, said Jerry Openshaw, spokesman for the Utah division's Northern Region.

Openshaw said the Newfoundland Mountains are ideal bighorn habitat with steep rock faces, adequate grasses and free running water. Later this winter, another 10 bighorns are to be rounded up on Antelope Island in Great Salt Lake and released in the Newfoundlands.

The DWR brought five Nevada bighorns to Antelope Island last year to mix with a herd of California bighorns established on the island in 1997. Desert bighorns were once native to the Newfoundland Mountains, a remote desert range about 45 miles west of Salt Lake City.

California bighorn sheep were chosen for the release because they are adapted to survive in both the hot and cold environments typical in the West Desert, Openshaw said.

The Newfoundland Mountains are primarily on land administered by the Bureau of Land Management, which is cooperating in the release. The southern part of the range is on a Hill Air Force Base training range, so Wildlife Resources had to obtain the cooperation of the U.S. Air Force before the transplant could take place.

Much of the funding for the transplant comes from the Utah Chapter of the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, a private conservation organization. The group helped pay for the release of about 117 bighorn sheep in Utah last year.