The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) has announced its plan to restore the state’s bighorn sheep population.
“There has been some struggle with our bighorn sheep populations recently because of respiratory disease,” Jace Taylor, the bighorn sheep and mountain goat biologist for DWR, said.
“Part of our objective is to expand bighorn sheep populations where possible and to maintain the overall population in a sustainable and healthy way across Utah to provide quality opportunities for wildlife viewing and hunting.”
DWR will release 35 sheep on Antelope Island in January, with the goal to increase the island’s population to 125.
Out of the island’s original 150 sheep, only 26 survived the respiratory illness outbreak in November 2018.
The survivors later had to be euthanized.
How the sheep contracted the disease has yet to be determined.
State park employees plan to build a fence on the south end of the island to monitor and contain the sheep.
There are currently around 4,150 bighorn sheep in the state of Utah.
