Sheep returned to Owyhees in 1960s now a strong population

Once plentiful when settlers arrived in what would become southwest Idaho, a rapid decline of bighorn sheep in the 1800s resulted in a near-extinct population in the first quarter of the 20th century.

The last sighting of a native bighorn sheep in Owyhee County was around 1927, according to Idaho Fish and Game.

In the early 1960s, a collaborative effort between the state and federal government’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decided to bring sheep back to their former range in the rugged southwest corner of the state, where the animals once thrived.

Since the effort began in the 1960s, Idaho’s bighorns of the Owyhee country have been a targeted game species, as numbers flourish in the rough and tumble desert breaks of southwest Idaho.

In a report published in 1976 called “A Successful Bighorn Sheep Re-establishment Program in Southwest Idaho,” former Fish and Game biologists Paul Hanna and BLM biologist Mike Rath shed light on the reintroduction effort.

According to the report, when Fish and Game and BLM initiated the program to restock bighorns into their historic range, they first had to decide which subspecies to release.

California bighorn sheep originally spanned from British Columbia south to northwestern California.

“The subspecies historically existed further east; but it was unknown how far east,” according to the report.

Biologists weren’t sure of the geographic demarcation between California bighorns and the Rocky Mountain subspecies.

“Examination of native Owyhee bighorn sheep skulls added more confusion than clarification when they showed characteristics from Rocky Mountain, California, and even desert bighorn sheep subspecies,” the authors of the report noted.

Because southwestern Idaho was likely part of the historic boundary of the different bighorn subspecies, either California or Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep could be re-established there, the biologists decided.

Because California bighorns were far less abundant than their Rocky Mountain cousins, Californians were the subspecies destined for the Owyhees.

The first 19 bighorn sheep from British Columbia were reintroduced into East Fork Owyhee River in 1963. More came later.

The success of the reintroduction in some parts of the Owyhees was initially deemed questionable until sightings trickled in from cattlemen and hunters. Helicopter surveys in the spring of 1973 documented a growing population, and in 1975 the first bighorn sheep hunt in Jacks Creek was established, according to Fish and Game.

Last year 18 sheep were harvested through special hunts in the desert units. Average horn circumference ranged from 12.5 to 14.88 inches and horn length from 25 to 40.25 inches.

- • •

Rachel Curtis, Idaho wildlife regional biologist, contributed to this report.