What are you doing here?
This handsome bighorn sheep has been hanging out up Burke Canyon for the last few weeks. He is believed to have wandered into the area from a herd near Thompson Falls, Mont. Photo by AUTUMN CALLIHAN
BURKE — A slightly different face has been popping up in Burke Canyon over the past few weeks.
Social media feeds have been exploding with photos of a bighorn sheep wandering the hillsides and even the streets near Burke, but many folks have been asking the question: Where did he come from?
The answer, while entirely clear, could be fairly simple.
According to Kiira Siitari, a regional communications manager with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, bighorns are pretty common in Montana and for one to wander into parts of North Idaho can be both due to proximity of region and biology.
“There is an established bighorn herd in the Thompson Falls area, so our biologists are not surprised to see sheep in the upper Coeur d’Alene basin now and then,” Siitari said. “Young rams are especially prone to wander and we’ve had reports of a ram in Wallace this year and even had a young sheep near downtown Coeur d’Alene in 2017.”
At one time, the population of these sheep was vast in Montana, but then got exceptionally low due to things like poor range conditions, severe weather events, outbreaks of scabies, anthrax, lungworm and pneumonia-related diseases.
By 1930, the Montana Bighorn Sheep were reduced to small remnant bands and were considered by some to be an endangered or rare species.
Now, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (MFWP), there are now 45 populations of bighorns across Montana with an estimated 5,700 bighorn sheep occupying roughly 3.7 million acres in Montana, excluding Yellowstone and Glacier national parks.
The present distribution and status of bighorn sheep in Montana is due to improved range conditions, reduced competition for forage from livestock and other wildlife, reductions in domestic sheep and goats, regulated hunting and transplanting.
According to Siitari, our particular bighorn friend probably comes to us via the aforementioned Thompson Falls herd and according to MFWP’s 2018 North Clark Fork District big game survey, 40 sheep where counted in this herd.
For more information, visit the Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks website at www.fwp.mt.gov.