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February 7, 2010 in Outdoors
Hard times hit area bighorns
Four Montana herds, two in Washington plagued by disease
Bighorn sheep are suffering from pathogens rendering them susceptible to pneumonia while having no effect on domestic sheep. Montana has killed 200 bighorns to thwart an outbreak.
(Full-size photo)
Bighorn sheep, among the most prized big-game animals in the West, are being killed by the hundreds this winter in Western Montana in a desperate effort to contain a disease outbreak.
Washington is considering a similar last-ditch effort to curtail an outbreak that’s killing bighorns along the Yakima River between Ellensburg and Yakima.
As of Thursday, more than 200 pneumonia-plagued bighorns in the Missoula region had been shot by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks employees. Another 20-30 may have to be culled, said Mike Thompson, agency wildlife biologist in Missoula.
Outbreaks have been detected in four separate Missoula-region …
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