Efforts To Stop Bighorn Epidemic Off To Rocky Start Copter Crew Begins Picking Up Sheep After Weather Delay

A three-state effort to capture as many as 80 bighorn sheep and stop a deadly epidemic got off to a turbulent start Saturday morning.

Wildlife biologists from Washington, Idaho and Oregon gathered along the Snake River south of Asotin in an attempt to capture as many as 80 bighorns.

A crew of New Zealanders from the Salt Lake City-based Wildlife Research Management supplied the air support for the campaign. The crew used a helicopter and gun-fired nets to capture and pluck the sheep from the rugged basalt cliffs along some 17 miles of the Snake’s Washington shoreline.

A cold front temporarily grounded the capture crew during the morning but by noon the team had captured a half-dozen bighorns.

District wildlife biologist Pat Fowler of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Department who flew over the area Tuesday and Wednesday estimated as many as 25 bighorns already died.

The goal now is to capture all of the remaining sheep in the area and ship them south to the Idaho Fish and Game Department’s veterinary research clinic at Caldwell.

“There are another 200 sheep up the Grand Ronde that we don’t want to get it,” Fowler said.

If the capture crew cannot corral the bighorns, the Washington agency may have to go another step and kill any bighorns remaining in the area to ensure the epidemic cannot spread farther, Fowler said.

The outbreak apparently began near the Ten Mile area on the Washington shore near where Weissenfels Ridge meets the river.

By Saturday, 11 bighorns from a group of 17 had died there, Fowler said.

An epidemic of bacterial pneumonia began killing the bighorns more than a week ago. The first dead sheep was taken to veterinarian Bill Foreyt of Washington State University a week ago Saturday.

Foreyt said early tests show the bacteria involved are pasturella, but more work will be needed to determine if the strain is normally found in bighorns or may have come from domestic livestock.

Dave Hunter, the Idaho agency’s wildlife veterinarian, said there is a chance some 30 percent to 40 percent of the sheep captured may survive the disease with treatment.

The evidence shows so far that the strain involved is fast-moving and lethal, Hunter said. Normally when sheep get it they are dead within 96 hours.

Fowler said a dead goat picked up in the Ten Mile area is also being tested by the Washington State lab to see if it is carrying the same bacterial strain that is killing the sheep.