Timeline: Bighorn sheep relocation and deaths in the Catalinas

Bighorn sheep — absent from the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson for more than a decade — could be roaming wild in the range again by mid-November.

State wildlife officials said Wednesday that plans call for capturing bighorns on the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground northeast of Yuma beginning Nov. 16.

“We’ll be trying to get 30 sheep and then transport them to the Tucson area by truck,” said Mark Hart, a spokesman for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. “They will be released at Catalina State Park” north of the city.

The bighorns, the first of about 100 to be reintroduced into the Catalinas over the next two years, are intended to help re-establish a once-flourishing herd that died out in the late 1990s.

Hart said a helicopter will be used to capture sheep in the rugged terrain of the proving ground.

“They shoot a net from the helicopter and the bighorn becomes entangled,” Hart said. “Then the animal is airlifted to a staging area where it’s blindfolded and prepared for transport by truck.”

The exact start date and duration of the transplant operation will depend on weather and challenges of capturing the sheep.

“We’re planning generally on Nov. 16, 17 and 18,” but less or more time might be required, Hart said.

The animals will be trucked to Catalina Park as promptly as possible.

“They will be released from the truck, and they will just bound right out and start climbing” into the mountains, Hart said.

Drive north of Tucson into Oro Valley, pull over, and peer up at rugged Pusch Ridge towering above you to the east: What you’re seeing is the past and future home of a free-roaming herd of bighorn sheep.

Plans call for reintroducing bighorns later this month on the ridge in the Catalina Mountains — where a herd of the agile, but in some ways fragile, animals died out in the late 1990s.

State wildlife officials say the ridge habitat is much improved in recent years, and they predict sheep brought to the site from Western Arizona will thrive there.

“You look up at that ridge and you think: There should be sheep there,” said John McGehee, a wildlife manager for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. The department plans to capture about 30 bighorns northeast of Yuma beginning Nov. 16 and release them onto the ridge from Catalina State Park.

“I think they’re going to do fine up there because the habitat is so much better than it was” when the previous herd died out, McGehee said. “But wild animals have a mind of their own. Will they become accustomed to the habitat? We’ll have to see.”

DOMAIN OF BIGHORNS

Pusch Ridge, by many measures, is an ideal range for bighorns — which are big, up to 250 pounds or more for males, and handsomely horned in adulthood.

The most striking feature of the ridge area: steepness.

The landscape rises abruptly from rolling hills to rock benches, nearly vertical cliffs and deep-cut canyons. Craggy peaks in the area include 5,361-foot Pusch Peak, 5,633-foot Bighorn Mountain and 6,250-foot Table Mountain.

Tucson resident Bob Cardell, an avid hiker who has summited those peaks and roamed the area’s canyons, can attest firsthand to the nature of the terrain.

“The area is very rugged, steep, rocky and brushy,” Cardell said. “Good area for bighorns.”

Vegetation ranges from saguaros and other cacti to junipers and oaks in higher elevations of the Pusch Ridge Wilderness. Forage for bighorns includes jojoba, brittlebush, rock moss, fairyduster and grasses.

Bighorns can often get by with the moisture they obtain from plants, but water sources include springs, rainwater pools in canyon bottoms and a catchment near the base of the ridge.

“We don’t expect they’ll have problems with water, and there’s no grazing up there” of livestock, which could compete for water supplies, McGehee said.

It adds up as ideal terrain for the sheep, which are excellent climbers with a keen sense of balance, remarkable speed in steep country, and an adaptability to assorted food sources. Bighorns were abundant in the area during much of the past century, with population estimates ranging from 100 to 220.

But if the ridge seems an ideal home for bighorns, it’s also a potentially dangerous place for them — a fact dramatically demonstrated by the previous herd’s sharp decline in the 1980s and eventual disappearance in the 1990s.

Suspected causes of the herd’s demise include urban development, predation by mountain lions, human impacts from hiking and bringing dogs into the area, disease, and changes in habitat conditions.

A flourishing mountain lion population will pose a threat to the reintroduced sheep. So will an ever-expanding human presence, which can interfere with bighorn travel routes, feeding, breeding and other activities.

But it’s the improved ridge habitat, biologists maintain, that could turn the tide in the bighorns’ favor.

FIRE TO THE RESCUE

Wildfires at various sites in the sprawling 56,933-acre Pusch Ridge Wilderness Area, which extends well east of the ridge itself, have vastly improved the habitat for sheep, biologists maintain.

“Fires opened up the understory” of vegetation, McGehee said. “When it does that, it makes the forage more palatable. It also gives the bighorns better visibility of predators” and an improved chance of eluding them.

A document called the “Habitat Enhancement and Wildlife Management Proposal,” prepared by the Game and Fish Department, outlines plans for using fire as a management tool.

“We will work cooperatively with the Forest Service to implement prescribed burns within potential sheep habitat in the Catalinas,” the document says. “We will also encourage allowing natural-caused wildfires to burn provided they do not pose a threat to human life or resources.”

HIKING RESTRICTIONS

Cardell and other hikers will face some restrictions aimed at giving the bighorns a shot at success on Pusch Ridge.

Heidi Schewel, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service, which is a partner in the reintroduction effort, said dogs will be prohibited in the area during the bighorn lambing season from January through April each year.

Hikers, Schewel said, are prohibited from traveling more than 400 feet off designated national forest trails during that period. So-called bushwhacking, or hiking cross-country without use of a trail, also is prohibited.

PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS

Some Tucson-area residents support the reintroduction of bighorns to Pusch Ridge, but others question whether it might curb access by people — and possibly sentence the sheep to the same fate suffered by their predecessors.

Mike Harris, chief guide for the Southern Arizona Hiking Club, is a supporter, but he has a concern about continued access to the area.

“I have hiked and explored most of the peaks and canyons in the Pusch Wilderness. It has some of the most rugged terrain of all the mountain ranges I’ve hiked,” Harris said. “I have seen bighorn sheep in other mountains and I personally think it would be really great to see them in the Catalinas.”

Harris said club members have adhered to trail restrictions and will continue to do so. “The club’s biggest concern with the reintroduction of sheep is that the Forest Service may prohibit all hiking in the wilderness,” he said.

Jim Weaver, an outdoorsman, environmentalist and Tucson business operator, voiced reservations about the reintroduction.

“Here’s my concern: I think there’s been a lot of environmental input into public policy that’s based on very loose science and selected facts,” Weaver said. “There’s a lot of use of trail systems and a lot of construction that could be impacted by existing environmental law should the animals be reintroduced there. That would introduce a lot of conflict that the community is not prepared for.”

Weaver added: “From a sentimental standpoint, I’d love to see bighorn sheep up there. But I think they thrive in the Kofa Mountains (near Yuma) for good reason, and Pusch Ridge is not the Kofas.”

WHAT IF?

The historic bighorn herd lived largely along Pusch Ridge itself — on the western edge of the much larger designated Pusch Ridge Wilderness area.

But what will the newcomer sheep do? What if they wander to other parts of the Catalinas or even out of the range entirely?

“We’re hoping they stay over by Pusch Ridge because the historic population was there and it’s good habitat,” McGehee said. “But you can’t predict where they will go. They could go far east of the release area. They could end up in Molino Canyon” near Molino Basin along the Catalina Highway.

Best advice: Bring binoculars wherever you travel in the Catalinas — and don’t be surprised if you spot a large, horned critter anywhere in the range.

YUMA — Wildlife officers — swooping out of the sky in helicopters and wielding net guns — snared fleet bighorn sheep in rugged mountains northeast of here Saturday.

It was the first vital step in a plan to transplant bighorns from healthy herds near Yuma to the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson — where a native bighorn herd died out in the 1990s.

“It’s going well and the sheep are looking good,” said Anne Justice-Allen, wildlife veterinarian with the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

By midday, the net-gunners had captured nearly a dozen animals and taken them to a staging area on the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge for veterinarian exams and installation of Global Positioning System collars.

BUILDING A NEW HERD

The department planned to collect 15 bighorns from one herd Saturday and take an additional 15 from another herd today.

The sheep are to be carried by trailer to Tucson and released at Catalina State Park Monday morning.

Thirty more animals are to be moved to the Catalinas next year, followed by 30 more the year after that, said Raul Vega, regional supervisor for the Game and Fish Department in Tucson.

“We’re real excited,” Vega said. “This has been a long time coming, and lots of people have been involved” — including an advisory group made up of members of conservation and wildlife organizations.

“If we can get the population up to 100 animals, we consider that a pretty good population for the Catalinas,” Vega said.

Mike Quigley, of the Wilderness Society, one of the advisory organizations, was at the wildlife refuge staging area Saturday to watch the captured sheep brought in

“We’ve been working for the better part of a year to make this a success, and this is the first major milestone,” Quigley said. “We look forward to seeing the sheep start their journey to Tucson.”

The bighorns are expected to roam at first on craggy Pusch Ridge on the southwestern end of the Catalinas, but biologists said some might later move farther east

The new herd’s survival isn’t certain. Some of the factors that might have led to the demise of the previous herd remain — including encroaching urban construction, possible disruption of the herd by hikers, and predation by mountain lions.

Heidi Schewel, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service, which is a partner in the project, emphasized that dogs — which can also threaten bighorn survival — are not permitted in the sheep habitat at any time. Hikers will be limited in off-trail travel during the bighorn lambing season from January through April.

CAPTURE TECHNIQUES

Chris Bedinger, a spokesman for the Game and Fish Department’s Yuma office, said the helicopter capture team includes a pilot, an officer wielding the net gun, and a person known as a “mugger.”

“Once the animal is netted and lowered to the ground, the mugger jumps from the helicopter and secures the animal,” Bedinger said.

The bighorn is loaded onto the helicopter and flown back to the staging area, where workers put the animal on a stretcher and rush it to an examining area.

Justice-Allen said arriving bighorns are checked for temperature and any injuries.

“We give them treatment to bring the temperature down” if it is too high, she said. “Pouring cold water over them to prevent overheating is what works best.”

Workers also collect blood samples from the sheep and attach ear tags and the GPS collars, which will allow biologists to monitor bighorn movement and mortality in the Catalinas.

MORE EWES THAN RAMS

Capture teams seek to catch more females than males.

“We try for two to three ewes for each ram,” Justice-Allen said. “The ewes are the ones that make the population grow.”

In fact, there could be bighorn births next spring in the Catalinas.

“The breeding season is past,” Justice-Allen said, “so ewes are in the early stages of pregnancy.”

Bighorn sheep are roaming wild in the Catalina Mountains once more.

Thirty-one of the fleet, agile animals — captured in rugged mountains near Yuma over the weekend — were released early Monday at Catalina State Park north of Tucson.

The 24 ewes, six rams and one lamb leapt out of a transport trailer when doors were opened and made a bounding beeline for craggy Pusch Ridge.

State wildlife officers “transplanted” the animals as a first step in an effort to rebuild a bighorn herd that died out in the Catalinas in the 1990s.

“So far, it’s looking good,” said Raul Vega, regional supervisor for the Arizona Game and Fish Department, minutes after the bighorns took to the hills. “There were no fatalities” or serious injuries in the process of capturing and releasing the animals.

Plans call for transplanting 30 more sheep to the area next year and another 30 the following year with hopes of building a herd of about 100 animals.

“SECONDS OF EXCITEMENT”

Game and Fish Department officers — along with the U.S. Forest Service and an advisory group from conservation and wildlife organizations — spent more than a year evaluating the transplant concept and working out details for carrying it out.

Department spokesman Mark Hart summed up the project goal this way: “The overall objective is to restore a healthy, viable and self-sustaining bighorn sheep population that coexists in natural balance with a healthy native predator population in a naturally functioning ecosystem.”

The overall cost estimate for the project: $600,000 over the next three years. Public and private fundraising efforts are underway to secure funding, Hart said.

Compared with the two-day sheep-capture operation near Yuma, where wildlife officers used a net-gun fired from a helicopter to snare sheep, the release on Monday seemed to be over in a heartbeat.

“Welcome to wildlife management,” Joe Sacco, field supervisor for the Game and Fish Department, said after the release. “It’s years of planning punctuated by seconds of excitement.”

NOT ALL AGREE

Numerous residents of Southern Arizona have contacted the Arizona Daily Star to voice objections to the reintroduction — many calling it a “death sentence” for sheep seeking a foothold in an area where the previous herd died out. Some have expressed their misgivings in public meetings on the topic.

Wildlife officers and project supporters at Monday’s release voiced optimism. But they acknowledged that it will take time to learn how the bighorns will adapt to their new home — an adaptation that could be hindered by urban encroachment, predation by mountain lions and human recreation activities.

“The previous herd thrived for years and years and years,” said J.W. Harris, chairman of the Arizona Game and Fish Commission. “Fire suppression, drought, disease, the presence of humans and other factors could have brought the demise of that herd.”

Key factors have changed, however, said Harris and others.

One is that fires have been allowed to burn naturally where possible in the sheep habitat in recent years — removing dense vegetation that provided cover for mountain lions stalking bighorns in earlier times when fires were suppressed.

Another factor: Dogs, which have a negative impact on sheep breeding and survival, are now banned from the habitat, and the Forest Service has limited off-trail travel during the January-to-April lambing season.

Also important, project supporters say, is that all of the released bighorns except the lamb, which is still growing, are fitted with Global Positioning System collars. Signals from the collars will allow wildlife officers to monitor sheep movements and learn of sheep deaths.

If it’s determined that one or more mountain lions are preying regularly on bighorns, efforts would be made to kill those lions. That’s another part of the plan that has drawn criticism from some members of the public.

WILL HERD BE HUNTED?

A spokesman for the Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society, which is a member of the advisory group and a financial contributor to the project, said hunting of the species in the Catalinas could be in the future — but not the immediate future.

“If this becomes a viable, self-sustaining herd, it would be at least 10 years before there would be hunting,” said Joe Sheehey, a past president of the society.

All 31 of the bighorn sheep released into the Catalina Mountains on Nov. 18 apparently have survived so far and are fanning out across the range, state wildlife officials said Wednesday.

“So far, so good,” said Mark Hart, spokesman for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. “They’re generally in the historic range for bighorns, and they’re doing well at this point as far as we can tell from the data we’re receiving” from global positioning system collars on the animals.

The sheep, captured in mountains near Yuma on Nov. 16 and 17, were “transplanted” to the Catalinas in an effort to rebuild a herd that died out there in the 1990s. Twenty-four ewes, six rams and one yearling ram were released along the Romero Canyon Trail at Catalina State Park north of Tucson — and they quickly bounded away into the mountains.

“WIDELY DISPERSED”

“It looks like one of the sheep is as far north as the mountains in an area near Biosphere 2” southwest of Oracle, Hart said.

He said another half-dozen bighorns have made their way east from the release site to the slopes of Mount Lemmon.

“Most of the remainder are in the Pusch Ridge area including Pima Canyon, and one animal has made its way as far east as the west fork of Sabino Canyon,” Hart said. “They are pretty widely dispersed, but they are tending to hang together in smaller groups of three, four or six animals.”

In previous transplant operations, sheep have tended to regroup into more cohesive herds after fanning out initially, Hart said.

He said wildlife officers studied the Catalinas well in advance of the release and found “good habitat from upper Sabino Canyon all the way (west) from there to Pusch Ridge” at the southwestern end of Catalinas.

“Part of what makes

Pusch Ridge so good is that it is so rough that it doesn’t get as many hikers,” who might impact the bighorns’ behavior, Hart said. “It’s the most rugged and least accessible part of the range. But where the sheep go is up to them.”

COLLARS WILL COME OFF

The GPS collars fitted on the sheep help wildlife officers track bighorn movements and determine when a sheep dies — marked by the cessation of movements.

“We’d love to think there will be no mortalities, but there will be,” Hart said. “In the natural order of things, there will be mortalities — whether from accident, a misstep or a predator.”

The collars aren’t intended to remain with the sheep indefinitely.

“The collars come off automatically when the battery dies — after maybe two years,” Hart said.

One of the bighorn sheep released into the wild in the Santa Catalina Mountains has been found dead.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department said Friday the dead ram was discovered Wednesday. Thirty-one of the bighorns were released in the mountains Nov. 18 after being captured in the Yuma area.

The dead animal was found along the eastern edge of Sutherland Ridge near Romero Canyon, Mark Hart, an agency spokesman, said in a news release.

The discovery was made after a mortality signal from the sheep’s GPS radio collar was detected during an aerial survey. All but one of the bighorn sheep were fitted with the collars.

The cause of death of the 4-year-old ram is under investigation. Samples were collected from the carcass for analysis.

Hart said possible causes are injuries that may have occurred during or after capture, including myopathy or acute acidosis cause by stress that can lead to heart failure. Other possible causes are a fall, a predator or disease.

Toxicology results from the ram are expected by Dec. 6 or early the following week.

“Any time we undertake a translocation of wildlife, mortalities are to be expected,” said regional supervisor Raul Vega.  “Our intent is to minimize mortalities within this population by all available means.”

The dead ram was one of six adult males released. The population includes 24 ewes and one yearling ram.

The sheep were transplanted to the Catalinas in an effort to rebuild a herd that died out there in the 1990s.

Plans call for transplanting 30 more sheep to the area next year and another 30 the following year with hopes of building a herd of about 100 animals.

Game and Fish Department officers — along with the U.S. Forest Service and an advisory group from conservation and wildlife groups — spent more than a year evaluating the transplant concept and working out details.

The cost for the three-year project is about $600,000.

Bighorn sheep and mountain lions are dying in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson as a result of a “transplant” of 31 sheep into the range last month.

“I’m confirming that there were two sheep mortalities and two mountain lions lethally removed in the Catalina Mountains this weekend,” said Mark Hart, spokesman for the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

After a meeting Tuesday evening of an advisory committee at Game and Fish offices in Tucson, which was closed to the public and media, Hart provided more details.

He said a Game and Fish officer shot the first mountain lion Saturday afternoon after it came up 10 yards behind him and he felt threatened. A private hounds man hired by the department shot the second lion Monday morning, Hart said, adding that both incidents were handled “totally by the book.”

In each case, he said, the shooters had reason to believe the mountain lion had killed a bighorn. Later examinations of the lions’ stomachs confirmed that, Hart said.

Game officials were not surprised this happened so quickly after the sheep were released in the Catalinas. Until a viable bighorn population is established there, any mountain lion that eats a sheep will be killed, “in an attempt to re-establish the natural order of things,” Hart said.

“At some point, if a threshold is reached” where the deaths of sheep and mountain lions are deemed excessive, game officials will reassess, he said, declining to give any numbers.

Officers of the Game and Fish Department, using helicopters and net guns, captured the 31 bighorns in mountains near Yuma on Nov. 16 and 17. The animals were released into the Catalina Mountains from Catalina State Park north of Tucson on Nov. 18 — the first step in an effort to rebuild a bighorn herd that died out in the 1990s.

The first mountain lion was shot about 2 p.m. Saturday a half-mile off the Kachina Trail between Mount Lemmon and Romero Pass; the second at about 7 a.m. Monday about a mile off the Romero Canyon Trail just below the Montrose pools.

Numerous Tucson residents have contacted the Arizona Daily Star to decry the transplant plan and the killing of mountain lions for doing what predators do — preying on animals such as bighorns.

“The reintroduction is akin to a home invasion,” said Tommy Di Maggio, a Tucson outdoor recreation guide and lifelong conservationist. “Imagine if someone broke into your home and removed you and your family with nets, and told you they were taking you to a place were there weren’t enough of you.”

The loss of two bighorn sheep so soon after the reintroduction is early evidence that the reintroduction plan is “a horrible decision,” Di Maggio said.

“Mercilessly removing the bighorn sheep from their native habitat, chasing them with helicopters, shooting them with nets, hauling them into the helicopters and transporting them to a very heavy human-populated area with a large population of healthy mountain lions was crazy,” he said.

Another Tucsonan, retiree and former hunter Charles Bilbro, said the bighorns “were killed by mountain lions. What did anyone expect? Put dinner on the table and someone is going to eat, especially where your existence depends on it.

“Now the sheep are free to die off just like they did before — slowly — from the environment they are forced to live in,” Bilbro said. “Conditions that killed them before have increased and will kill them again.”

A new group — Friends of Wild Animals — has been formed in Tucson to protest developments in a recent bighorn sheep reintroduction near the city and voice opposition to the closure of meetings on the project by state wildlife officials.

Group members are demanding that meetings held by the Arizona Game and Fish Department and a citizens advisory group be opened to the public.

“We are also calling for an indefinite moratorium on any further bighorn sheep reintroduction or mountain lion killing in the Catalina Mountains,” said group spokesman Ben Pachano.

Two of 31 bighorn sheep — captured near Yuma and released in the Catalinas on Nov. 18 — have died, and state-sponsored hunters killed two mountain lions that preyed on the sheep. Numerous people have decried the killings.

Some citizens and a reporter from the Star sought to be admitted to a Game and Fish Department meeting on the reintroduction reportedly scheduled for Thursday evening. A department spokesman declined to reveal where — or even if — a meeting would be held.

“There are no bighorn sheep meetings scheduled, for today or in the future, that are subject to Arizona’s open-meetings law,” was the terse response from spokesman Mark Hart, who provided no additional information.

Pachano said the Friends of Wild Animals group is made up of a small but growing number of “environmentalists and wildlife lovers who are upset about the way this reintroduction is being handled.”

“Game and Fish has proven itself incapable to manage a responsible reintroduction program,” Pachano said.

“Rather than working toward a healthy ecosystem that honors predator and prey relationships, Game and Fish is treating the Catalinas like a giant stock pond for its trophy-hunting friends.”

He maintained that agency officials are “literally running away from public scrutiny” by holding meetings on the bighorn project that aren’t open to the public or media.

Members of the group provided an email address — friendsofwildanimals@gmail.com — for people who have questions about the group or want to join it.

The reintroduction of bighorn sheep to the Catalina Mountains has gotten off to a deadly and controversial start — with two bighorns killed by mountain lions, two predatory lions killed by state-sponsored hunters and many citizens voicing scathing criticisms of the project.

Thirty-one sheep, captured in mountains near Yuma last month by officers of the Arizona Game and Fish Department, were released in the Catalinas north of Tucson on Nov. 18.

It was the first step in a plan by wildlife officials and members of a citizens advisory group to rebuild a bighorn herd that died out in the range in the 1990s.

Even before the sheep were released, numerous people decried the project as an ill-conceived effort to micromanage nature — and some predicted that the bighorns were doomed to death in a place where the previous herd met its end.

Last week, with reports that bighorns and mountain lions were dying so soon after the reintroduction, many Tucsonans expressed outrage.

Some lashed out at the Game and Fish Department for “absolutely appalling behavior” and for causing “cruel and unusual suffering” for the sheep and lions. Others called for an immediate end to the project and an investigation into the department’s actions. One Tucsonan posted a petition at www.change.org calling on citizens to urge the department to stop killing mountain lions.

But others have expressed support for the reintroduction and want to see it go forward. One Tucson sportsman and conservationist said loud opposition to the project reflects the “inflamed emotions of a misguided and under-informed public.”

The Star posed questions about the reintroduction and resulting controversy to Game and Fish officials. Here are the agency’s answers, which were formulated by a group of officials and advisory group members and submitted in writing:

Q: At least two bighorn sheep have been killed, and two mountain lions have been killed by marksmen representing the department, since the Nov. 18 bighorn release. Did wildlife officials expect the killing to begin so soon?

A: We expected that lions would prey on sheep. Exactly how soon that would happen could not be predicted. However, predation commonly occurs soon following release because during the early weeks and months, translocated bighorn sheep remain unfamiliar with their new surroundings and are exploring their new home. It takes a little while to learn where the best habitat is located.

Q: Will every lion that kills a bighorn be tracked down and killed?

A: That is unlikely. Not all mountain lions that prey on bighorn sheep are likely to be found. If a female with young kittens is the predator that takes a bighorn sheep, we will not take that animal.

Q: What is the method of operation? How do wildlife officers or contract hunters get to the kill site? Are helicopters, horses or off-highway vehicles involved, or is the approach on foot?

A: They hike in by foot.

Q: How can wildlife officers know for certain that a particular lion has killed a sheep before they kill the lion and examine the contents of its stomach and other evidence?

A: If the inspection of the dead bighorn sheep occurs soon after the death, there is a very high probability that if a mountain lion killed the bighorn sheep, it will remain in the vicinity of the kill and carcass. Both of the mountain lions recently removed had been feeding on the bighorn sheep and were at or near the sheep kill site. Tracking is done by wildlife management professionals and/or an experienced houndsman. Finally, forensic samples of the bighorn sheep and the mountain lion are collected and analyzed in the process by which we confirm predation as the cause of death.

Q: Numerous members of the public say they are “outraged” that a state agency is killing members of one species to protect another. What’s the best brief explanation of this policy?

A: Removing mountain lions that kill bighorn sheep is a short-term management strategy to allow for the bighorn sheep population to grow and become self-sustaining. Research shows that Tucsonans support having bighorn sheep in the Catalinas. Only mountain lions that prey on sheep will be removed. While certain individual mountain lions are removed, the overall population of mountain lions will not be substantially affected. The mountain lion population in the Catalinas is among the most abundant in Arizona.

Q: It was stated after a meeting Tuesday that wildlife officials will reassess the situation if “at some point a threshold is reached” where the deaths of sheep and mountain lions are deemed excessive. What is that threshold?

A: We are following an adaptive management strategy which means that we continually reassess based on incoming data which is assessed in conjunction with the Catalina Bighorn Advisory Committee. We are committed to working with and through our community partners in this adaptive decision-making process.

The plan includes a subsequent translocation of more bighorn sheep from another population next year. Those bighorn sheep will benefit from the herd knowledge gained by bighorn sheep from the release this year. At this point, we do not anticipate abandoning this effort in the short term, but our plans will continue to be shared with the public as they develop.

Q: If such a threshold is reached, what would happen? Would the department stop killing mountain lions? Would it cancel plans for transplanting more sheep to the Catalinas?

A: This is a five-year project with two more sheep transplants planned. Modification of the program is certainly a possibility, but again, we will work with our community partners in the adaptive decision-making process.

Q: Are the sheep showing signs of forming a cohesive herd or are they quite scattered? Would forming a cohesive herd help protect the bighorns from predation by mountain lions?

A: At present, the bighorn sheep continue to explore their new habitat and have not yet formed herd units. Individual bighorn sheep in a group tend to be less vigilant, but larger groups of bighorn sheep may offer more protection, as more individuals are watching for predators from more directions.

Q: Is the previously reported cost of the entire three-year project still estimated at $600,000 or has the projected cost changed? What is an approximate cost to taxpayers of pursuing and killing a mountain lion that has killed a bighorn?

A: No taxpayer dollars are being used for this project and the department does not receive any general fund appropriations. This effort is funded entirely with fees paid for hunting licenses and permits, as well as excise taxes on hunting equipment and private donations. Anyone who has not purchased hunting or fishing licenses, purchased firearms or ammunition, or provided a donation to this project has not contributed anything toward this conservation effort. We encourage people to donate to the restoration project.

Q: Could the Game and Fish Department and the advisory group have been wrong about the viability of reintroducing bighorn sheep to the Catalina Mountains?

A: This is a management experiment. Bighorn sheep were extirpated from the Catalinas during the early 1990s, yet the specific reason for the extirpation remains speculative. Yet, many possible factors influencing that extirpation have been addressed, including habitat improvements and recreational disturbance. Many years of study, planning and community coordination paved the way to the recent release in the Catalinas. Yet this remains a long-term project. Statewide, the department has relocated over 2,000 bighorn sheep since 1957. Translocations have been the primary tool that brought bighorn sheep from the estimated 1,500 animals in 1957 to the more than 5,500 we have in the state today.

This is the first effort to restore the population in the Catalina Mountains. The difficulty in restoring a population after it has been extirpated underscores the importance of maintaining those populations that are in place. Our objective is to establish a self-sustaining population, and we are doing everything we can to work toward this. This is a wildlife experiment that can inform bighorn sheep management statewide.

Q: Might the project be canceled if sheep and lions continue to die? And if it were canceled, would the department consider recapturing the sheep and returning them to their home ranges?

A: This is a five-year program, and we are in this for the long haul. We are committed to working with and through our community partners to achieve the best possible outcomes.

The department is not planning to recapture any remaining bighorn sheep if the effort is discontinued. These bighorn sheep may find others in other nearby habitats, or simply join other pioneers that may explore into the Catalinas from those nearby habitats. Any recapture effort in this habitat would be risky for both biologists and bighorn sheep.

Q: Is there other information you would like to share?

A: We are using the latest science to work toward success of this project. That includes understanding the life histories of bighorn sheep and mountain lions.

Mountain lions and bighorn sheep differ in their longevity and reproductive capabilities. Mountain lions can live up to 13 years in the wild, although most are substantially younger. Female mountain lions typically breed for their first time between a year and half and 3 years of age. Females typically have twins, and give birth about once every year and a half. Survival to adult is variable, but ranges from 20 to 50 percent.

Bighorn sheep may live up to 12 years in the wild as well, although attaining this age is equally unlikely for bighorn sheep as it is for mountain lions. First breeding for females typically occurs during her second year. Ewes will typically have a single lamb annually, and lamb survival to adulthood is typically around 25 percent.

These natural history parameters give mountain lions the reproductive advantage over bighorn sheep. Within the Catalinas, this demographic advantage also extends to the potential for immigration of mountain lions from contiguous habitat, from which other mountain lions may move into any vacant habitat. Suitable bighorn sheep habitat is most often isolated to steeper ground with cliffs and peaks. Bighorn sheep have to cross substantial barriers, including highways and unsuitable habitat, to gain access to the Catalinas. That is why sheep had to be reintroduced, after having died out in the 1990s. Clearly, there is no danger of decimating mountain lion numbers.

And although the numbers themselves may favor mountain lions, the Catalinas are home to a robust deer and javelina population that mountain lions can also use for food.

Conservation of wildlife is a long-term and often a difficult pursuit, based on scientific research, observation and monitoring and experience, planning and coordination with land management agencies, local governments, organizations and citizens.

Conservation requires “boots on the ground” in all kinds of conditions and circumstances. The public’s passion for wildlife is of utmost importance. We seek to inform the public as to all aspects of the department’s management of wildlife.

A fourth bighorn sheep released into the Santa Catalina Mountains on Nov. 18 has died, killed by a mountain lion, according to a new report from the state wildlife agency.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department had previously reported the deaths of three of the 31 desert bighorn sheep that had been released. The department is attempting to restore a population of bighorns in the Catalinas that died out in the 1990s.

The new report by the agency, which will begin providing regular updates for the project of reintroducing the bighorns back into the mountains north of Tucson, shows that on Dec. 9, an adult ewe was found dead, killed by a mountain lion. The mountain lion could not be found.

The previously reported deaths include two sheep killed by mountain lions, which were then tracked and killed by agency personnel. The deaths and mountain lion killings have angered many people who are calling for the agency to end the bighorn reintroduction program.

One of those bighorns killed was pregnant, Friday’s report states.

The first death, an adult ram found Nov. 27, was likely caused by a condition called “capture myopathy,” the report said. Capture myopathy is associated with the build-up of lactic acid in muscle tissue that can lead to heart failure. That condition can last in an animal for several weeks after capture and release, the report states.

The report did say game managers are optimistic to see that many of the released sheep are moving into more appropriate habitat that will help the population survive.

They said the sheep when initially released headed for higher elevations but remained temporarily in habitat that is considered dangerous for survival — areas with thick vegetation where predators can hide. Sheep are better protected from predators if they live in areas that afford them clear views.

Three of the deaths occurred in what game officials described as poor habitat — areas with dense vegetation. The fourth death was in a habitat described as fair, the report said.

Most of the released sheep are outfitted with GPS monitors that allows their locations to be tracked by Game and Fish.

A fifth bighorn sheep has died in the Catalina Mountains — the victim of a mountain lion.

Wildlife officials vowed Friday to continue the “necessary and distasteful” policy of killing lions that prey on sheep in the range north of Tucson, where 31 bighorns were reintroduced in November in an effort to re-establish a herd that died out in the 1990s.

Two mountain lions implicated in previous sheep deaths have been killed so far. Hunts for other lions, including one sought in the most recent bighorn death on Jan. 3, have been unsuccessful, officials of the Arizona Game and Fish Department reported.

Department officials and members of a citizens’ advisory committee addressed a wide range of questions about the controversial reintroduction project at a news conference.

Ben Brochu, wildlife manager for Game and Fish, said the bighorns — transplanted from mountains near Yuma — have roamed far and wide in the Catalinas since their release Nov. 18 at Catalina State Park.

Global positioning system collars indicate that sheep have spread out “from the Biosphere (2), around Pusch Ridge and east to Molino Basin,” Brochu said. “A group of four are together now” — a possible indication that the animals might begin to form a cohesive herd.

Examination of the remains of the five dead sheep indicated that “four of the sheep were killed by mountain lions, while the fifth most likely died of capture myopathy” — stemming from stress or injuries during capture, said a report released at the news conference.

PROTESTS AND QUESTIONS

Members of a recently formed group called Friends of Wild Animals turned out before the news conference with signs and statements opposing the reintroduction project and the killing of mountain lions.

“My concern is that the sheep are being wasted,” group member Ricardo Small said. “I don’t think this project will succeed for the long term.”

Another protester, Sharon Eisenhower, said, “I don’t want to see any more mountain lions get killed.”

At the conference, reporters, group members and state Sen.

Olivia Cajero Bedford pursued the controversial issue of lion killing and a perceived “secrecy” and lack of readily available information about the project.

Responding to concerns about lion killings, advisory committee member Randy Serraglio, of the Center for Biological Diversity, said he shares such concerns.

“I’m a cat person,” said Serraglio, noting that he owns a domestic cat. “It definitely pains me to think about mountain lions being killed. ... But it’s a necessary and distasteful” policy in establishing the bighorn herd.

He said the policy — in which wildlife officers establish a lion’s role by its proximity to the bighorn kill site and other factors — is “very targeted, very conservative and very limited.”

Mike Quigley, an advisory-group member with The Wilderness Society, said the group determined it probably wasn’t feasible to re-establish the herd without removing some sheep-killing lions.

“This isn’t punitive,” Quigley said. “This isn’t about punishing mountain lions for doing what mountain lions do.”

Department officials and advisory group members emphasized that female lions with kittens will not be pursued and killed even if it appears they killed a bighorn.

Cajero Bedford said she has had difficulty in getting information from the Game and Fish Department about the reintroduction project.

“There’s a feeling out there that there’s some secrecy to this project,” she said.

Advisory-group members said they sometimes need time to coordinate information and talking points, but they denied that the project is cloaked in secrecy.

“There’s nothing to hide here whatsoever,” Serraglio said.

Department officials and advisory-group members said they plan to provide written briefings on the status of the project every two weeks.

State wildlife officials declined Friday to provide current information on a controversial bighorn sheep reintroduction in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson.

They said news reporters and the public will have to wait for biweekly updates to learn if more bighorn sheep have died in addition to the five deaths previously reported.

Diane Tilton, spokeswoman for the Arizona Game and Fish Department, would neither confirm nor deny that one or more additional sheep have died in the project, in which 31 bighorns were transplanted into the Catalinas in November to rebuilt a herd that had died out.

“All of our information going out to the media will be coming in our biweekly briefing updates,” Tilton said. “The next one will be on the 24th of January.”

Efforts to get updated information from other department officials, including Joe Sacco, a wildlife manager supervisor, brought similar responses. Sacco responded with an email message that said, “Attached is the most recent briefing for the Catalina Bighorn Sheep Reintroduction Project that was released on January 10, 2014. The next briefing will be available on January 24, 2014.”

The Star posed questions to the agency after email messages and a Facebook post by people opposed to the project related as-yet-unverified information about a possible sixth bighorn death.

The post on the Facebook page of the Friends of Wild Animals group said: “The Friends of Wild Animals recently learned that the 6th bighorn sheep is dead in the Catalina Mountains. Thirty-one desert bighorn sheep were released in November 2013 in what will likely be a failed attempt to re-establish a bighorn population in the Catalina Mtns. The 20 percent mortality in two months indicates the remaining 25 sheep won’t be alive at the end of 2014, unless the mortality rate diminishes.”

Members of the group declined to reveal their source of information. That, and the refusal of the Game and Fish Department to clarify the situation, means there is no certainty that an additional sheep has died.

It’s also not known if more mountain lions have been killed in addition to two lions that previously were killed for preying on bighorns.

State Sen. Olivia Cajero Bedford, who attended the Jan. 10 briefing on the project, said Friday that she has repeatedly had difficulty getting up-to-date information on the bighorn reintroduction from wildlife officials.

“It’s not transparent,” Cajero Bedford said of the project. “There’s a secretiveness about it. They should be more forthright.”

She said she plans to request information from a state budget committee about project expenditures.

Meanwhile, a member of a citizens’ advisory committee working with the Game and Fish Department on the project defended the delayed flow of information and maintained that a Star reporter is “sensationalizing” the story.

“All this information is going to come out on a regular basis — every two weeks,” said committee member Randy Serraglio of the Center for Biological Diversity.

“There are lots of wildlife projects that put out regular updates. They don’t do a press release about every little thing that happens.”

Serraglio added, “You’re sensationalizing this story so you can sell papers. You’re obsessed with this lions versus sheep issue.”

Some environmental activists see it differently.

Rich Small, of the Friends of Wild Animals group, said that “this is a controversial project” calling for prompt dissemination of information — especially in a fast-paced “information age.”

“The public interest demands an immediate update on what’s going on and when,” Small said.

“The idea that we have to wait a couple of weeks for information is just crazy.”

A seventh bighorn sheep apparently has died in the Catalina Mountains, according to state wildlife officials, said a state senator who spoke with the officials Wednesday.

“In my office, they said it appears that a seventh sheep has died of the 31” that were transplanted to the Catalinas in November, said Sen. Olivia Cajero Bedford, D-Tucson. “I said that if seven sheep have died in just two months, what would happen if all 31 were dead by July? Would they stop the program? They said no.”

Officials of the Arizona Game and Fish Department — which is overseeing the bighorn reintroduction project with input from a citizen advisory group — have repeatedly and adamantly declined to respond to questions about sheep deaths except by way of a news release issued every two weeks.

The most recent news release on the project, which is aimed at rebuilding a herd that died out in the Catalinas, was issued Jan. 10 and confirmed only five bighorn deaths. At least two mountain lions have been killed for killing bighorns.

The next release is scheduled for today.

“The public is obviously outraged about this, and they (wildlife officials) have backtracked on their pledge to be transparent and accountable,” said Dwight Metzger, a member of a group called Friends of Wild Animals. The group opposes the reintroduction of bighorns and the killing of mountain lions.

“They still refuse to quantify how many lives will be lost — bighorns and mountain lions — until they admit this is a failure,” Metzger said. “A lot of questions need to be answered.”

Rich Small, another member of the group, said, “I would like to see the Game and Fish Department decide not to go ahead with the additional reintroductions planned for later this year and sometime next year. It’s wasting bighorn sheep and mountain lions that will be killed for killing bighorn sheep.”

Eight of the 31 bighorn sheep transplanted to the Catalina Mountains in November are now dead — slashing the size of the group by more than 25 percent in just over two months.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department finally confirmed the sixth, seventh and eighth bighorn deaths in a news release on Friday, more than two weeks after one of the sheep died and more than a week after the other two deaths.

Agency officials have declined to provide promptly updated information on the sheep reintroduction, choosing instead to issue news releases only every two weeks. The previous news release on Jan. 10 confirmed five deaths and the deaths of two mountain lions that were killed by the agency for preying on sheep.

The three mortalities confirmed Friday were adult ewes found on Jan. 8, 11 and 15, the news release said. It said investigators determined that the bighorns were killed by mountain lions, but that the “offending” lions were not located.

Most of the sheep released were fitted with GPS tracking collars.

The eight dead bighorns consisted of six adult ewes, a yearling ewe and an adult ram. All the ewes were killed by mountain lions, investigators found. The ram apparently was a victim of capture myopathy, a buildup of lactic acid in muscle tissue during the capture or release process that can lead to heart failure, the news release said.

Meanwhile, U.S. Forest Service officials released an updated map of a designated bighorn sheep management area, where restrictions are in place.

Dogs are prohibited at all times in the area, and traveling more than 400 feet off designated trails is prohibited during the bighorn lambing season from Jan. 1 through April 30.

Also prohibited are day-use groups of more than 15 people and overnight groups of more than six people, year round.

CONTROVERSIAL PROJECT

The bighorn sheep reintroduction, which is aimed at rebuilding a herd in the Catalinas that died out in the 1990s, has drawn strong criticism from many members of the public. Some say it’s a bad idea to reintroduce bighorns where the species previously failed to thrive. Others decry the killing of mountain lions for doing what predators naturally do — in this case, preying on bighorns.

“As the toll from this cruel experiment mounts, the (citizens’) advisory committee (working with the Game and Fish Department) needs to act,” said Dwight Metzger, a member of a group called Friends of Wild Animals. “There should be no more lions killed, and certainly no more bighorns relocated in the Catalinas.”

Supporters of the project — including members of the advisory committee and Tucson sportsman Larry Audsley — say it’s a worthy plan and that people should withhold judgment until it has a chance to succeed.

A ninth bighorn sheep has died in the Catalina Mountains where 31 bighorns were released in November, state wildlife officials reported Friday.

The pregnant adult ewe was found Jan. 31 in area of steep slopes and cliffs.

Officials of the Arizona Game and Fish Department said in a news release that “evidence indicates that a cat, perhaps a young mountain lion or a bobcat was likely involved, but due to rains overnight, investigators failed to find fresh tracks or a trail, and the cat did not appear to have returned to feed on the sheep again. Thus the animal that preyed on the sheep was not removed.”

The 31 bighorns, captured in mountains near Yuma, were released in the Catalinas north of Tucson in an effort to rebuild a herd that disappeared from the range in the 1990s. In addition to the nine bighorn deaths, two mountain lions have been killed for preying on sheep.

The project has drawn widespread criticism from citizens who opposed the bighorn capture and transplant — and now express outrage at the subsequent deaths of sheep and lions. But the project has won support from a citizens advisory committee and others in the Tucson area, including sportsman Larry Audsley.

“Most people are not familiar with the history of bighorn sheep recovery in Arizona and don’t realize the extent of mortalities that occurred with previous transplants that ultimately proved successful,” Audsley said. “Restoring sheep to their historical habitat is essential to securing the future of the species.

“Opponents of the reintroduction seem to be very concerned with the welfare of individual lions and sheep,” he said. “Supporters have a broader perspective that takes in biodiversity and the well-being of the entire species. I believe that’s a major point of division between the two groups.”

Audsley added that “death is a constant among wildlife. They’re constantly dying for all sorts of reasons. That’s why they have such high birth rates, and if they weren’t dying prematurely at such a high rate we’d soon be overrun with them. That helps explain why we don’t get hysterical over the loss of a few animals as part of an effort to benefit the population as a whole.”

Some opponents of the project maintain that it amounts to “torture” of the sheep and persecution of mountain lions for doing what predators do — and they say the high number of deaths indicates that the project is on the path to failure.

“To torture the sheep in the netting and capturing is cruel,” said Rich Small, a member of a group called Friends of Wild Animals and one of many who have viewed Game and Fish Department videos of the capture. The videos showed some bighorns taking hard falls after being ensnared by nets shot from a helicopter.

“They seem to want to charge ahead with the next two relocations of bighorns” scheduled for later this year and in 2015, Small said. “I have two degrees in wildlife biology, and I don’t think it’s a good idea to put the bighorn sheep through that sort of trauma. That type of torture is not OK. The project should stop. It’s a big mistake.”

Small also expressed concern about a reference in the Game and Fish Department report that says, “As of Feb. 2, 2014, 21 of the 30 (GPS) collared sheep were known to be alive on the mountains.”

“What about the uncollared bighorn?” Small asked, referring to the single one of the 31 sheep that wasn’t fitted with a GPS tracking collar. “Is it alive or dead?”

Another bighorn sheep has died in the Catalina Mountains — the 10th bighorn fatality since 31 sheep were released in the range last November, state wildlife officials confirmed Monday.

“It was a ewe and it was found on Friday, Feb. 7,” said Mark Hart, a spokesman for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. “The cause of the death is being investigated.”

The 31 bighorn sheep, captured from healthy herds near Yuma, were relocated to the Catalinas in an effort to rebuild a herd that disappeared from the range in the 1990s.

Most of the sheep that have died were killed by mountain lions. Two lions have been killed for preying on sheep.

The bighorn reintroduction project has won support from a citizens advisory committee and many Tucson-area sportsmen, but it has drawn intense criticism from other members of the public. Opponents maintain it makes little sense to remove bighorns from habitats where herds are thriving and relocate them to the Catalinas, where the previous herd died out. Others have criticized the Game and Fish Department for the killing of lions for doing what predators naturally do to stay alive.

Monday’s confirmation of the most recent bighorn death marked a change from a former Game and Fish Department policy of refusing to provide promptly updated information on the project. Under the previous policy, information was released only in project reports issued every two weeks.

Two apparently healthy lambs have been born to bighorn sheep that were released in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson last November, state wildlife officials reported Wednesday.

The lambs were sighted last week by a biologist with the Arizona Game and Fish Department, who took photos of one of the lambs with its mother.

“This is another important milestone in the Santa Catalina bighorn sheep restoration project,” said Raúl Vega, regional supervisor for the department. “Our goal is to restore a healthy, viable and self-sustaining population of desert bighorn sheep to the range that coexists with an equally healthy native predator population in a naturally functioning ecosystem.”

Thirty-one bighorns, captured in mountains near Yuma, were brought to the Catalinas in an effort to rebuild a herd that disappeared from the range in the 1990s.

Ten of the bighorns have died, most being the victims of mountain lions. Two mountain lions have been killed for preying on sheep.

PHOTOS FROM A DISTANCE

The biologist’s photos show the first lamb and ewe that were seen, said Mark Hart, spokesman for the department. “A second lamb and ewe were also spotted.”

Hart said the photos were taken from the ground at a far distance using a high-magnification spotting scope and handheld camera. It was important to remain at a distance to minimize disturbance to the sheep.

The lamb in the pictures was photographed on Feb. 4, Hart said. The second lamb was seen on Feb. 6.

Mike Quigley of the Wilderness Society, who serves on a project advisory committee, said, “These little lambs are the first Catalina-born desert bighorn sheep in nearly 25 years. This used to be a common event and hopefully will be again.”

Another advisory committee member, Trica Oshant Hawkins of the Arizona Wilderness Coalition, called the lamb sightings “great news and a timely reminder of the importance of trail restrictions currently in place within the Coronado National Forest’s Bighorn Sheep Management Area.” The restrictions prohibit dogs in the area at all times and hiking more than 400 feet off trail during the bighorn lambing season from January through April.

“We’re hopeful that other ewes will successfully birth lambs over the coming months,” Oshant Hawkins said. “The January-through-April lambing season is a very sensitive time for bighorn sheep, so it’s really critical that people do not hike off trail or take their dogs into the area.”

Time will tell if the lambs will survive, but the ewes apparently chose good birthing sites, Hart said.

“Ewes will pick the safest location possible to give birth,” he said. That’s what you’re seeing in the photos — rugged, rocky terrain where she can birth the lamb.”

Another bighorn sheep has died in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, state wildlife officials confirmed Saturday.

It’s the 11th bighorn death in the range since 31 sheep were released in November, bringing the toll to more than a third of the population in about three months.

“The Arizona Game and Fish Department confirmed a bighorn sheep mortality in the Santa Catalina Mountains on Wednesday, Feb. 12,” says a notice on a department website. “The cause of death for the ram was determined to be predation by mountain lion, which was also determined to be the cause of death for a bighorn ewe mortality confirmed on Friday, Feb.7. In both cases, the mountain lions that took the sheep were pursued but not administratively removed (killed).”

The news comes just days after the department announced that two lambs have been born to ewes that were among the sheep relocated to the Catalinas.

A member of a group called Friends of Wild Animals said the rapidly occurring deaths suggest that the reintroduction project — an effort to rebuild a herd that disappeared from the Catalinas in the 1990s — is doomed.

“Only 20 of the original 31 relocated bighorn sheep are alive after only three months,” Rich Small said. “The actual death rate of the relocated bighorns indicates that, within the next six months, all will be dead.

“It’s a shame that two lambs were born in unfamiliar habitat in the Catalina Mountains instead of in their parents’ home ranges over near Yuma, where the habitat is familiar to the adults and where mountain lions are not being killed by Game and Fish Department personnel.”

Two mountain lions have been killed in the Catalinas for preying on bighorns since the project began.

Another bighorn sheep, a ram, was found dead in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson on Tuesday, the Arizona Game and Fish Department has confirmed.

It was the 12th bighorn to die since 31 sheep were relocated to the Catalinas from the Yuma area in November.

The cause of the ram’s death is under investigation, officials reported.

Two mountain lions have been killed for preying on sheep since the reintroduction project began.

In related developments:

• A bighorn lamb was spotted Tuesday in the Catalinas. It’s the third lamb seen since the relocation, which is aimed at rebuilding a herd that disappeared from the range in the 1990s.
• Members of a group called the Friends of Wild Animals held a protest Thursday outside the downtown headquarters of the Coronado National Forest. The purpose: to voice opposition to a proposal that would allow helicopters in the forest’s federally designated wilderness habitat occupied by the bighorns.

Mark Hart, a spokesman for the Game and Fish Department, said the agency is seeking a permit from forest officials to fly helicopters in the wilderness if such flights were deemed necessary.

“Helicopter flights could be necessary to examine a sheep carcass, remove a carcass, or bring up supplies,” Hart said.

“If a helicopter goes into the wilderness, we would need the permit.”

Heidi Schewel, spokeswoman for the Coronado Forest, said Thursday that the permit request is under consideration.

A decision would be made by forest officials only after following standard protocols, Schewel said.

Ben Pachano, a spokesman for Friends of Wild Animals, said the group opposes helicopter flights in the wilderness because “helicopters are a major disruption to wildlife, including lots of sensitive wildlife other than bighorns.”

The Arizona Game and Fish Department released new photos Friday of another lamb born in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson.

So far, three lambs have been spotted in the Catalinas, born to bighorns relocated there from Yuma.

Game and Fish said this week that 12 of the 31 bighorns relocated have died, most being killed by mountain lions.

The agency said at least three lambs have been seen in the mountains.

Mountain lions that kill bighorn sheep in the Catalina Mountains will now be tracked and killed by state-sponsored hunters only in a portion of the Catalinas rather than throughout the range, wildlife officials said Friday.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department said in its project update that it is implementing a recommendation to “collapse the previous administrative mountain lion removal (killing) boundary and refocus removal efforts to a more defined area.”

Since 31 bighorn sheep were relocated to the Catalinas north of Tucson from mountains near Yuma in November, 12 bighorns have died — most of them killed by mountain lions. Two mountain lions have been killed by the agency for preying on sheep. Pursuits of other lions have been unsuccessful.

“We’ve adapted the plan to better manage the sheep population,” which is monitored by means of GPS collars, said Mark Hart, an agency spokesman. “Most of the surviving sheep are in the (reduced) area where lions can be pursued. We’re trying to focus resources on the best habitat.

“Previously, essentially the whole Catalina range was the area where we could pursue mountain lions,” Hart said. “Now, the designated area is basically the west and south slopes — from Cañada del Oro to Bear Canyon.”

He had no immediate estimate of the acreage of the area.

Elsewhere in the reintroduction update issued Friday, officials and the project advisory committee noted that “there has been a conscious effort to try an alternative, more conservative and more targeted approach to addressing mountain lion predation. The idea is to remove only those lions that select for sheep and leave in place those that do not.”

The reason for that, the report said, “is that those lions left in the habitat would prevent the influx of new migrant lions that could prey upon sheep.”

The report said the agency and advisory committee look for ways to conduct “selective” removal of lions that prey on bighorns as much as possible.

It goes on to say, however, that an alternative is “to apply more indiscriminate methods until specific goals tied to the management are met” and that “alternative actions may become necessary in order to facilitate the re-establishment of the bighorn sheep herd in the Santa Catalina Mountains.”

Ben Pachano, a spokesman for a group called Friends of Wild Animals, said, “While it’s good to see Game and Fish limiting lion hunting in any way, the people of Tucson have made it clear that they want a complete end to the killing of mountain lions in the Catalinas.”

“It’s notable,” Pachano said, “that in the same report announcing a limitation of lion hunting, the advisory committee basically threatens to begin wide-scale killing of mountain lions if they deem it ‘necessary.’ But the entire reintroduction project is itself unnecessary.”

NEW LAMB PHOTOS

Photos released Friday by the Game and Fish Department show a bighorn lamb — one of three lambs spotted in the range since the relocation project began.

While the births are considered a positive sign, officials caution that quick population gains are unlikely because of a low survival rate for lambs.

The survival rate for bighorn lambs is 20 to 25 percent, Hart said.

A bighorn sheep was found dead Friday in the Catalina Mountains — marking the 13th bighorn death since 31 sheep were relocated to the range from the Yuma area in November, state wildlife officials confirmed Monday.

The ram’s cause of death was determined to be predation by a mountain lion, said Mark Hart, spokesman for the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

“We’re trying to locate the lion, but some time has elapsed (since the bighorn death) so it’s questionable whether it will be located, Hart said.

Two mountain lions have been killed for preying on sheep since the relocation, which is aimed at rebuilding a bighorn herd that disappeared from the Catalinas north of Tucson in the 1990s. Some hunting and conservation groups support the project, but many Tucson-area residents have voiced strong opposition to it.

Two more bighorn sheep have died in the Catalina Mountains and a mountain lion was killed for preying on sheep, state wildlife officials confirmed Wednesday.

The sheep deaths were confirmed on Sunday and on Tuesday.

Fifteen of the 31 bighorns relocated from the Yuma area to the Catalinas in November are now dead.

The bighorn found dead Sunday was a ewe, and wildlife officers determined that it was the victim of a mountain lion, said Mark Hart, spokesman for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. The agency is overseeing an effort to rebuild a bighorn herd that disappeared from the Catalinas north of Tucson in the 1990s.

"The lion was trailed directly from the sheep carcass and taken (killed) within a half mile of the kill site" by a department-authorized hunter, Hart said. "We think this was a lion that has killed up to three other (GPS) collared sheep because of the size of the track as well as the timing and proximity to recent sheep deaths."

It's the third mountain lion killed for preying on sheep since the relocation in November.

The bighorn found dead Tuesday was a ram, reducing the number of rams in the remaining group of sheep to two, Hart said. He said the cause of the ram's death is under investigation.

It would be "premature" to decide whether to go ahead with a planned relocation of 30 additional bighorns to the Catalinas in the fall, Hart said.

A bighorn sheep reintroduction project that has brought the deaths of 15 bighorns and three mountain lions in the Catalina Mountains is a futile “crazy program” that will only lead to more dead animals, a spokesman for opponents of the project said Friday.

“The only way the (Arizona) Game and Fish Department can maintain a bighorn herd in the Catalinas is to kill mountain lions” that prey on sheep, said Rich Small of the Friends of Wild Animals group. “It’s a vicious cycle.”

Members of the Friends of Wild Animals and a group called Supporting and Promoting Ethics for the Animal Kingdom (SPEAK) held a news conference outside Oro Valley town offices where the Arizona Game and Fish Commission was meeting.

Speakers from both groups strongly criticized the reintroduction of 31 bighorns — brought to the Catalinas from the Yuma area in November in an effort to rebuild a bighorn herd that died out in the range north of Tucson. They also called for an end to the killing of mountain lions that prey on sheep.

Game and Fish spokesmen defended the project and emphasized that wildlife officers were taking a “surgical” approach to mountain-lion control — killing a very limited number of lions to increase survival chances for bighorns.

Ben Pachano, a member of the Friends group, said: “The bighorn reintroduction program has had plenty to announce in the past few weeks, none of it good.

“They’ve now lost at least 15 sheep, which includes half the adults and all but two of the rams,” Pachano said. “They’ve hunted and killed (three) mountain lions simply for doing what lions do: eating sheep.

“What will it take to declare this program a failure?” Pachano said. “How many more sheep and mountain lions will have to die?”

Pachano and Deborah Thompson, spokeswoman for SPEAK, said the department is catering to its “customers” — hunters — by trying to create a bighorn population that eventually could be hunted.

Joe Sacco, a spokesman for Game and Fish, said the agency is using “the most conservative practices possible” in managing the project in cooperation with a citizens advisory committee.

“I’d be perfectly happy if we didn’t have to kill another lion,” Sacco said. “But we realized that the sheep would need that help, at least early on.”

Mark Hart, another department spokesman, said that “this notion that we’re just doing this so people can hunt bighorns is unfair. We’re committed to restoring native species to their historic habitat wherever we can.”

Hunting, Hart said, is “really closely regulated. There are about 6,000 bighorns in the state. Last year we issued 104 tags” for hunting bighorns.

Sacco said future plans for the project  are re-evaluated as circumstances unfold.

Pachano said the wildlife groups plan to hold a protest of the project at 10 a.m. to day outside the Oro Valley town offices at 11000 N. La Cañada Drive.