“Another pneumonia outbreak has killed bighorn sheep in the Skalkaho area, and a veterinarian thinks smoke from wildfires may be to blame,” says an article in the Montana newspaper the Ravalli Republic. “If it spreads, the outbreak would be the 7th major die-off of bighorn sheep in western Montana since 2009.”
Read the rest of the story in the Ravalli Republic here.
Photo: A healthy bighorn sheep in Montana. Ryan Hagerty photo courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service.
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| Photo: Arizona Game & Fish |
Bighorn sheep have already been photographed using a wildlife highway overpass in Arizona, south of Hoover Dam. The overpasses were completed in January.
Arizona Game and Fish officials were concerned when they heard that Highway 93, in northwest Arizona, was going to be widened. The area is home to the nation’s largest contiguous population of bighorn sheep. Experience had shown that big horn sheep are wary of wildlife underpasses, which are much more popular with the sheep’s predators. Since bighorn sheep like to stay high, and were approaching the highway from the ridgelines anyway, four overpasses were incorporated into the 15-mile-long highway expansion project.
For more information about the project and the results, read this article in the Prescott Daily Courier. You can find information on the project from the Arizona Game and Fish Department here, and includes video.