by Dana Gentry, Nevada Current
January 27, 2025
Absent intervention by state wildlife officials, Nevada’s state animal, the desert bighorn sheep, may see its herds thinned by starvation because of drought.
“Over the course of the last month and a half this situation has exacerbated,“ NDOW game administrator Shawn Espinosa said during a briefing before the Nevada Wildlife Commission on Friday. “Not unlike the conditions we’ve all seen with Southern California wildfires, Southern Nevada is experiencing a drought situation.”
No measurable rain has fallen in Southern Nevada in the last 200 days. The monsoonal rains that generally drench the ground in late summer never materialized in 2024.
In late December, NDOW and its partners hauled 37,000 gallons of water to 10 existing guzzling stations in the mountains of Southern Nevada.
Bighorn sheep herds have grown in recent years, the result of plentiful rainfall in 2023. The result: Increased competition for resources that are becoming scarce and now reaching emergency levels.
In some places, such as the Muddy Mountains, carrying capacity – the ability of the land to support wildlife – is being exceeded, Espinosa said. Herds in the Arrow, McCullough, and Southern Spotted Mountain Ranges are also among the “worst off” according to NDOW.
“That herd has actually gone beyond its carrying capacity, in fact, so much so that we’re already seeing the water developments that we have filled already start to draw down,” he said. “Vegetation is in really bad shape.”
Desert bighorn sheep are herbivores. Their diet consists of grasses, shrubs, cacti, and acacia.
The department is anticipating hauling additional water to 20 herds next month, but that does nothing to increase forage, officials noted. Dropping hay is not a solution, as bighorn sheep can’t digest it. “It’s too rich,” NDOW’s sheep biologist Mike Cox told the commission.
“If we don’t take action, hundreds of animals will definitely die,” Cox said.
Officials say they are considering “all the tools in the toolbox” to achieve sustainable herds. Options include moving the sheep to other mountain ranges or even other states. The department is also considering emergency hunts to cull the herds.
“It’s going to be a costly venture,” said Cox, who did not provide estimates for the various options. “We’re going to need a lot of help to support these actions.”
“I think an emergency hunt would be the last option we would look at,” said Commissioner Tommy Caviglia of Las Vegas.
The state’s bighorn sheep hunting season is from mid-November to mid-December.
From The Nevada Current
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