Sudden Die-Off of Bighorn Sheep causes Ban on Hunting Season near Yellowstone National Park

The die-off of bighorn sheep due to pneumonia forced Montana wildlife managers on Monday to take the unusual step of putting ban on hunting season near Yellowstone National Park.

The emergency closure came after state biologists found that pneumonia had claimed the life of nearly 40% of a herd near Gardiner, Montana, whose numbers fell to 55 this month. Last year their population was 89, said state wildlife managers.

They also said that such pneumonia outbreaks have been linked to contact between wild sheep and domestic ones that graze on public allotments and private lands throughout the Rocky Mountain West.

According to the Wild Sheep Foundation, more than 1 million bighorn sheep once roamed across the region but now their numbers had fallen to just tens of thousands in the first decades of the 20th century due to unregulated hunting and disease.

It has been found that wildlife managers in Montana and other Western states made extra efforts to reintroduce wild sheep in areas where disease and historical over-hunting brought them closer to extinction.

Bighorns are prized by sportsmen and wildlife watchers for their curled horns and for their mating rituals that attract scores of wildlife watchers. During the ritual, the rival rams crash horns after running at each other at speeds up to
40 miles per hour.

As per experts, steps that have been taken by US land managers to reduce the number of sheep grazing allotments to lessen the disease risk to bighorns have met with violent resistance by sheep ranchers.

According to sheep ranchers, leases of ground are very important for their operations in states like Idaho, as majority of land there is under federal control.