Endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep Released at Yosemite National Park
With an aim to boost the population of endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, a group of agencies has released a dozen endangered sheep at Yosemite National Park late last week.
The group including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon national parks, Inyo National Forest and the US Fish and Wildlife Service started working on the project from Thursday in the Sierra mountain range.
The work continued through the weekend. In the work, nine ewes and three rams from the Inyo National Forest and Sequoia National Park were brought to the Cathedral Range of mountains in Yosemite.
Park officials were of the view that the task to bring 10 others to Sequoia National Park continued till Monday. Yosemite Superintendent Don Neubacher was of the view that the Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep is the only federally listed endangered mammal present in Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon.
The officials were of the view that there was a time when there used to be thousands of animals. But by 2000, the sheep population declined significantly to an around 100 animals. Since then, the population has increased to more than 600, which is considered to be as a vital milestone towards the recovery of the species.
Program's leader Tom Stephenson was of the view, "With this week's reintroductions, we now have bighorn distributed throughout all geographic areas identified as critical habitat in the recovery plan".
Now, the sheep have been released into the areas that were historically inhabited by the species. As per officials, the area is great for the animals as they can easily feed and run into other sheep herds.
Yosemite Conservancy President Frank Dean said that Bighorn sheep is a true symbol of wilderness and also represents the need to protect wildlands.