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Desert bighorn sheep return to native Franklin Mountains in El Paso [1]

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Date: 2024-12-04

At long last, the desert bighorn sheep return home to the Franklin Mountains – a site that may be critical to the animal’s future survival.

Beginning Wednesday, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is transporting about 80 sheep from Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area south of Alpine, Texas, to Franklin Mountains State Park in El Paso. The project is part of a decades-long effort by multiple groups to restore the sheep to their historical range in the U.S. Southwest and Mexico.

Park officials invited the public to watch the sheep’s planned release near the Aztec Caves trailhead Wednesday, when the first trailers are scheduled to arrive in the afternoon at Tom Mays Unit parking lot, accessible via an access road off Woodrow Bean Transmountain Drive. People can track the sheep’s whereabouts en route to El Paso by checking Franklin Mountains State Park’s Instagram and Facebook.

Visitors will need to purchase a pass online or at the park entrance – $5 for adults, free for children 12 and under – to view the sheep in the state park.

“For me, this is monumental,” said Froylán Hernández, desert bighorn sheep program leader at Texas Parks and Wildlife. “Because it’s the Franklins, a lot more folks will have more access and there will be lots of viewing opportunities. People don’t have to go out of state to view bighorns.”

For thousands of years, desert bighorn sheep roamed the isolated mountain ranges of Far West Texas. At Hueco Tanks in the easternmost part of El Paso County, prehistoric rock art depict the horned sheep in red and yellow paint. The sheep likely drank from rainwater that pooled in the hollowed huecos.

Texas Parks and Wildlife plans to repopulate desert bighorn sheep in the Franklin Mountains in El Paso in 2024. The project is part of efforts to restore the native sheep to their historic habitats. (Courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife)

But by the early 1960s, human activities wiped out the native population of desert bighorn sheep from Texas. Now, disease from non-native Barbary sheep, known as aoudads, threaten restoration efforts.

Aoudads have permeated every mountain range in the Trans-Pecos region except one – the Franklin Mountains, making the state park key to bighorn sheep repopulation in Texas.

Why did the desert bighorn sheep disappear from Texas?

Historically, desert bighorn sheep inhabited parts of the Chihuahuan Desert, Sonoran Desert, Mojave Desert and Great Basin Desert.

Prior to the construction of the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad in the late 1800s, as many as 2,500 sheep resided in mountain ranges in the Trans-Pecos region, according to a report by the Borderlands Research Institute at Sul Ross State University.

The development of a rail network allowed for the easy transportation of livestock, which resulted in a boom in the livestock industry. Livestock numbered in the tens of millions, with domestic sheep and goats competing with bighorns for natural resources. Net-wire livestock fencing also impeded the sheep’s natural movement to search for food and water.

Texas Parks and Wildlife is trying to restore desert bighorn sheep to the Franklin Mountains, one of their native mountain ranges. (Courtesy Texas Parks and Wildlife)

At the turn of the 19th century, the bighorn sheep population dwindled because of unregulated hunting, habit loss and fragmentation due to development, and disease spread by domestic sheep and goats.

By 1945, only 35 desert bighorn sheep were recorded in the wild, according to the Borderlands Research Institute. The introduction of aoudad sheep all but guaranteed the disappearance of native sheep.

By the late 1950s, Texas Parks and Wildlife began bringing the native sheep back, transporting its first sheep from Arizona. The department worked with organizations including Texas Bighorn Society, Wildlife Management Institute, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Boone and Crockett Club, Wild Sheep Foundation, and Arizona Game and Fish Department to spearhead the restoration of desert bighorn sheep to their original homes.

Texas Parks and Wildlife captures desert bighorn sheep at Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area for restoration on another native mountain range in Far West Texas. (Courtesy Texas Parks and Wildlife)

A source herd was established on Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area. The herd began in the 1980s with 10 rams and 10 ewes, Hernández said. As the herd grew, Texas Parks and Wildlife began periodically transporting groups of sheep to other native mountain ranges.

Why Franklin Mountains are critical for bighorn sheep restoration

Aoudads killed in recent years on Elephant Mountain tested positive for M.ovi, the bacterium that’s fatal to bighorn sheep, said Samuel Cunningham, president of the Texas Bighorn Society nonprofit. With the source herd’s habitat now compromised, it’s only a matter of time before the sheep on Elephant Mountain begin dying off, he predicts.

The Franklin Mountains restoration project is important for establishing a secondary – and perhaps eventually, a primary – source herd, Cunningham said.

But the Franklin Mountains weren’t always the top choice for sheep translocation.

“What we look at for a release site is its potential for natural expansion,” Hernández said. “If we are talking bighorns, what’s the likelihood of them moving and colonizing other areas on their own? With the Franklins, they don’t have that. It’s surrounded by city.”

But as aoudads proliferated in the rest of the the bighorn sheep’s historical lands, the Franklin Mountains rose to the top of the priority list, Hernández said. There are an estimated 20,000 aoudads in Texas compared with 1,000 bighorns, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife.

A desert bighorn sheep is captured at Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area for translocation to a native mountain range in Far West Texas. (Courtesy Texas Parks and Wildlife)

Aoudads look similar to desert bighorn sheep and are native to the dry, mountainous regions of northern Africa. In the 1940s and 1950s, U.S. soldiers stationed on the Barbary Coast had some aoudads shipped to ranches in Texas while Texas Parks and Wildlife also brought them over to restock wildlife for hunting. Aoudads escaped the ranches and people didn’t realize the population would do so well, Hernández said.

Aoudads can spread M.ovi, a bacterium that causes respiratory disease in sheep and goats. Earlier this year, Texas Parks and Wildlife workers attempted to wrangle and relocate a feral goat – known to many in El Paso as Bob the Goat – from the Franklin Mountains to reduce the risk of spreading disease. Nine times out of 10 when a bighorn sheep catches pneumonia from M.ovi, the sheep dies, Hernández said.

Aoudads also displace bighorns from better quality habitats because they’re bigger and more aggressive when competing for resources. They come from a much tougher, more arid habitat with less food sources, he described.

“They’re adapted to harsher conditions,” he said. “When they come here, they’re essentially coming to the garden of Eden. It’s in their DNA to be survivors.”

Non-native aoudad numbers have exploded, outcompeting native desert bighorn sheep. In 2024 Texas Parks and Wildlife estimate there are 20,000 aoudads and 1,000 bighorns. (Courtesy Texas Parks and Wildlife)

Then it becomes a numbers game, Hernández said. An aoudad has two mating periods in a year compared with one for bighorns. Twin lambs are common for aoudads, while bighorns typically only have one lamb. Bighorns also sexually mature at 2.5 to 3 years old, while aoudads mature at 1.5 to 2 years old.

At the Franklin Mountains, the surrounding urban areas make it difficult for aoudads to penetrate the state park, Cunningham said.

Texas Bighorn Society volunteers help build a water guzzler on Franklin Mountains State Park. The guzzlers collect rainwater for desert bighorn sheep and other animals. (Courtesy Texas Bighorn Society)

There’s a higher risk of aoudads coming north from the Organ Mountains in New Mexico than west from Hueco Tanks, but a long, flat stretch north of Franklin Mountains should make it easy to spot aoudads or bighorns moving in either direction, Cunningham said.

Some people have suggested hunting the aoudad number down as the animal does not require a special tag or season to hunt – but there are too many, Cunningham said. Most of Texas is private land and landowners make thousands of dollars selling aoudad hunts, so there’s not a financial incentive for them to get rid of all the aoudads, he added.

“Therein lies the problem,” Cunningham said. “There are so many (aoudads) now, this is not something you can hunt your way out of.”

To prevent the accidental hunting of bighorns, which require a permit, the Texas Bighorn Society distributes pamphlets that contrast the two. Desert bighorn sheep are brown with a distinct white rump and white muzzle. Their horns curl back and around to point forward. Aoudads are tan-brown all over and their horns curl out.

Made up of hunters and volunteers, the Texas Bighorn Society based in Lubbock supports the repopulation of desert bighorn sheep. Earlier this year Cunningham’s organization helped build two water guzzlers on the Franklin Mountains that will collect and store rainwater for the bighorn sheep and other wildlife.

The water guzzlers are in addition to the three active springs in the Franklin Mountains where the sheep can access water even during a drought, Hernández said. Along with the water sources, the park’s topography and vegetation make it a perfect habitat for bighorns, he said.

Bighorn sheep prefer the steep, rocky elevation of canyons and shelves. The rough, broken up terrain provides escape routes from predators, as well as protection when the ewes give birth, Hernández said. Predators include coyotes, bobcats and mountain lions, and eagles and foxes that prey on lambs.

Texas Bighorn Society volunteers help build a water guzzler on Franklin Mountains State Park. The guzzlers collect rainwater for desert bighorn sheep and other animals. (Courtesy Texas Bighorn Society)

A good variety of “first choice” plants of different heights also grow in the park, such as mountain mahogany, Wright’s silktassel and cliff fendlerbush.

“We classify food plants in three categories: first choice, second choice, third choice,” Hernández said. “First choice plants are those plants that bighorns go for first because they’re most nutritious for them. They’re like your ribeye steak. Second choice is a hamburger. Third choice is baloney. You can still survive on baloney, but it’s not very nutritious for you.”

View the sheep at Franklin Mountains – from a safe distance

Cesar Mendez, superintendent of Franklin Mountains State Park, said park visitors can expect sheep sightings. Each year park visitors might see lambs born in the spring as early as February and as late as July. Once the lambs make it through the first six months, they stand a good chance of living into adulthood, Hernández said. About 30% of lambs make it into adulthood, he said.

Ewes and young, desert bighorn sheep gather in Far West Texas. (Courtesy Texas Parks and Wildlife)

“Enjoy the views, but keep your distance,” Mendez said. “Do not try to approach them. Do not chase them. Do not harass them. Sheep naturally are going to try to stay away from people, at least in the beginning.”

Mendez recommends that park visitors do not try to interact with the sheep or leave behind any items that would affect wildlife species in the park, such as trash or even water bowls. The sheep’s water sources are away from the trails so animals can drink undisturbed, Mendez said.

Visitors can take pictures and report sheep sightings to park staff so they can keep a record of all the sheep locations, Mendez said. Other mammals in the park, such as javelinas and deer, tend to be nocturnal while sheep are active during the day – giving visitors more opportunities to spot them, he said.

Mendez doesn’t expect the sheep to roam near Transmountain Drive because they prefer higher elevations, but advises drivers to slow down as they would for a deer.

Hernández hopes the restoration project will give El Pasoans not only an appreciation for the desert bighorn sheep, but a feeling of collective responsibility to conservation.

“The reason why I think we should care,” Hernández said. “It is because of us that animals, not just bighorns, have gone extinct from the landscape or are struggling. … They were here long before we came along. We need to put them back.”

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[1] Url: https://elpasomatters.org/2024/12/04/desert-bighorn-sheep-franklin-mountains-state-park-el-paso/

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