America’s sheep have become a rarity in Texas, but a group of fauna biologists’s mission is to save the species.
About 50% of the state of the state’s sheep population has been decimated in the past five years due to an illness, said Froylán Hernández from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Hernández is the program manager of the Bighorn Sheep program in the department.
The disease has spread to America’s mouflons in other animals, which people have brought to the region. America’s sheep are originally from the western mountains and were formerly venerated by the Amerindians.
Last fall, wildlife biologists planned a rescue. They captured dozens of America’s sheep, some speakers, the only herd in Texas without illness.
Biologists transported the sheep to veterinarians to ensure that they were in good health, then moved sheep of more than 200 miles to an isolated mountain range, without species carrying diseases.
The biologists returned to the herd this month in the mountains of Franklin in western Texas to see if the sheep survived, and perhaps if the herd grew. They found a line of nine sheep, including lambs that only had days.
The herd of Texas grows again and the biologists hope that he will not make heads with humans or illness.
“I am extremely, extremely happy, very, very satisfied,” said Hernández. “It’s monumental.”