On November 6, 2012 the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) completed the first phase of their 2012-2013 big game capture, transplant and monitoring program by netting twenty-four California Bighorn Sheep in the Sheep Creek Range outside of Battle Mountain and releasing them in the Jackson Mountains.
This operation was the last of a four part effort starting on Nevada Day that involved capture of fifty Desert Bighorn Sheep in the Muddy Mountains near Henderson and the River Mountains near Boulder City which were transported and released on the Kaiparowits Plateau in Utah; and followed by twenty-five Desert Bighorn Sheep captured on Lone Mountain outside Tonopah and released in the Excelsior Mountain Range near Marrietta. The operation was made possible through donations from Nevada Bighorns Unlimited (NBU), the Fraternity of the Desert Bighorn, the Eastern Chapter of Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF), the Iowa Chapter of WSF and the Wildlife Heritage Fund.
Estimated to take place in February of 2013, the second phase of the program will include relocating California Bighorn Sheep to the Santa Rosa Range and Hays Canyon, Rocky Mountain Bighorns to the East Humboldt Range near Elko, and one-hundred pronghorn to the Yakima Nation in Washington, as well as monitoring the population of Mountain Goats, Bighorn Read more….