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| credit: Riverside Press-Enterprise |
The herd of big horn sheep
(Ovis canadensis nelsoni) living on Old Dad Mountain in the National Mohave Desert Preserve is being decimated by pneumonia. Half of the herd of 200 to 300 sheep may have died. The disease is transmitted by a variety of bacteria usually found in domestic sheep and goats. Wildlife officials say half the herd has been killed by the infectious disease. Bighorns do not tolerate domestic sheep, but merely the presence of infectious animals in the same area is enough to spread the usually fatal disease to big horns. There is no vaccine for pneumonia in bighorn and infected animals are usually shot to prevent disease transmission. Bighorns have not developed immunity. A herd near Yakima, Washington was recently wiped out by the disease. Four sick sheep were dumped in the desert off a truck en route on I-15 to alfalfa fields in the Imperial Valley, federal land managers told reporters. Officials fear the disease will spread to other herds as rams migrate. Several sick bighorns were found in the Marble Mountains, thirty-five miles to the south of the Old Dad area. Before the outbreak in the Mohave there were an estimated 425 to 750 bighorn in five herds. There were state and federal plans to capture and collar some bighorns and monitor their movements by GPS, but those plans are no doubt on hold now that the federal government has shut down most of its non-essential operations. A decision on whether to allow the annual bighorn hunting season starting December 1st has not been made.
