GPS Tracking Study To Protect Bighorn Sheep Population

The Teton bighorn sheep population in Wyoming faces many threats. One of these threats includes a nonnative mountain goat population, bringing disease and habitat competition to the region. Biologists are studying the bighorn sheep and goats in order to assess the danger and hopefully protect the native sheep. The research is part of the Montana State University Mountain Ungulate Project. GPS tracking devices track the herd movement and some are captured and studied more closely.

Recently, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department tranquilized four mountain goats, taking blood and fecal samples as well as tonsil swabs to find out if the goats are carriers of the bacterial strain of pneumonia, Mannheimia haemolytica. “We need to try to continue to monitor the herd so we can see how prevalent it might be in the Palisades goat herd,” explained South Jackson Game and Fish wildlife biologist Gary Fralick. “There’s just a lot of stuff we don’t know or understand yet.” One of the four goats tested positive for the pathogen.

Researchers are more concerned about the bighorn sheep than the mountain goats. The Teton bighorn sheep population, made up of two distinct herds in the area, totals only around 100 animals. If the pneumonia carried by the goats spreads to the sheep, the population might be in big trouble. “One sheep out of the 28 that we captured in the Tetons (in 2009) did test positive for haemolytica,” said Game and Fish habitat biologist Aly Courtemanch. “But we haven’t seen any of the die-off events. We haven’t seen any symptoms of pneumonia in that population.”

“We’ve known that the goat population overlaps with a domestic sheep population,” explained Steven Cain, chief biologist for Grand Teton National Park. “The potential for the goats to be a carrier between the bighorn and the domestic sheep is of concern.”

“There’s really been no research that I’m aware of looking at disease transmission between mountain goats and bighorn sheep,” Courtemanch said. In the meantime, researchers will continue to monitor the sheep with GPS technology. The Wyoming Game and Fish department has also planned to expand the hunting area for mountain goats to try and keep the population down, limiting the chances of cross-species infection.

GPS Tracking Study To Protect Bighorn Sheep Population