Mayhem Ensues As Colorado Parks Workers Capture Herd Of Bighorn Sheep In Massive Net: WATCH
Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) workers near Colorado Springs captured a herd of Bighorn Sheep earlier this month — by using a massive net and then wrestling the animals to the ground. And luckily for us, there's a video.
Footage shows a gigantic 70x70-foot net lowering onto the group of 20 Bighorn Sheep, who were lured to the area with apples and alfalfa. Then, dozens of CPW workers rush in and attempt to subdue the sheep as they thrash around in a panic. And that's no small task, given that each one weights about 300 pounds and has huge horns on its head.
"Oh my goodness, it looked like it was a Bighorn Sheep rodeo, and the Bighorns were winning for a while," CPW Southeast Region spokesman Bill Vogrin said. "I think it was about 40 seconds of chaos before our team was able to get in and subdue the sheep and calm them, and then the cavalry came in."
The sheep were tranquilized and some were fitted with collars. Then the team placed masks over their eyes and transported them to a new location.
Although the Bighorns were not happy about this stunt, it was for their own good.
Bighorn Sheep were nearly wiped out in the early part of the last century in Colorado because of unregulated market hunting, diseases brought in by domestic animals and loss of habitat.
So, since the 1940s, CPW has been working to restore and conserve the population. That means creating new herds, which sometimes involves separating and moving part of an existing one. That's what happened here. These particular Bighorns were taken to a burn scar area from the 2016 Junkins Fire near Pueblo. The area is healing now and wide open, a great environment for the sheep because they can see approaching predators.
Vogrin was happy to share that all 20 of the captured Bighorns are thriving in their new home.
"They were all pinging alive and well, and moving around and exploring their new habitat," he said.
The Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep is the official state animal of Colorado.
(Getty Images)
There are now 80 herds of Bighorn Sheep in Colorado with a population of about 7,000.
"We want to get as many out and many herds as we can out on the landscape to ensure that they do survive for future generations," Vogrin said.