Sheep studies tracking medication, movements

Utah's bighorn sheep are the subject of two separate studies.

The first involves the delivery of medication to sheep in Utah County in the food they eat.

The second involves learning the effects of human encounters on the sheep.

For the Utah County project, biologists from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources have created a mixture of good food and medications for the sheep. The medication is for parasites and de-worming and is mixed with alfalfa, apples and hay.

The medication program is conducted in the winter when natural food is scarce and bighorn sheep are more willing to feed on unnatural foods. Biologists watch where the sheep have been congregating and then place several small feed piles in those areas.

The de-worming pellets do not harm those sheep that might eat more than the rest of the herd, and the pellets are even beneficial to other types of wildlife, including deer.

Bighorn sheep are susceptible to several types of parasites, including a deadly bacterial pneumonia that can be transmitted among sheep and from a ewe to her newborn lamb.

Through stress, environmental or climatic conditions, these bacteria are able to migrate into the lungs of the sheep, where they cause lesions that lead to pneumonia. Once infected with high bacteria levels, bighorn sheep tend to get very sick and often die by late summer.

"I have been treating bighorn sheep around the Sheep Creek area near Flaming Gorge for about 10 years now and have seen a significant improvement in the survival rate of lambs," said Charlie Greenwood, wildlife biologist.

The program will continue in areas with lower lamb survival rates and lower population levels.

Craig Clyde, also a biologist with the DWR, started a similar program last month near American Fork Canyon.

Clyde and a corps of volunteers placed about 20 small piles of hay and apples, sprinkled with the medication, on the mountainside where sheep gathered. Within a day the mixture had been eaten.

Plans are to offer the same mixture into other areas along the Wasatch Front where sheep gather.

The purpose of the study near Moab is to learn how hiking, biking and off-highway vehicles affect the sheep in the area.

Last month, wildlife biologists used a helicopter to capture 15 bighorn sheep — four rams and 11 ewes — near Canyonlands National Park.