COLORADO BIGHORN SHEEP MANAGEMENT PLAN 2009−2019

Chapter 5
CAPTURE & TRANSLOCATION FOR RESTORATION & AUGMENTATION
Capturing and translocating bighorn sheep (Ovis
canadensis) have been important elements of bighorn
sheep management in Colorado since the 1940s.
Scientific knowledge about population estimation,
survival, herd movements and diseases affecting
bighorn sheep has improved as a result of capturing
and releasing bighorn sheep marked with tags or radio
telemetry devices, and numerous bighorn populations
have been reestablished or supplemented over the last
60 years via translocations.
In the future, capture and translocation will
continue to be used as management tools for bighorn
sheep in Colorado and will be used as prescribed in
population management plans in order to achieve local
and statewide bighorn sheep management goals related
to augmenting existing populations, reestablishing
populations in historical ranges, enhancing genetic
diversity, establishing new populations, gathering data
for research or management purposes, and exporting
animals to other jurisdictions to assist in range-wide
species restoration and conservation programs.
ManageMent goals & strategies
To accomplish statewide bighorn management
goals the following goals and strategies will apply:
Capture & Translocation
Management Goal
Capture or acquire bighorn sheep to gather biological
information or to translocate individuals for
reintroduction into historic or suitable habitat or
augmentation of existing populations.
Strategy: Capture and handling of bighorn sheep will
follow the Division’s Bighorn Sheep Capture and
Translocation Guidelines. (George et al. 2008).
Strategy: Annually determine capture needs and
purposes, as well as suitable sites and source herds
from within and out-of-state sources. This information
41
will be used as part of the yearly trap and transplant
plan.
Strategy: Removals of bighorn from source herds for
translocation should be treated the same as removals
by hunting. Therefore, translocations removals should
further meeting Data Analysis Unit (DAU) plan
objectives and follow removal goals and strategies. See
Population & Harvest Management, Ch. 4:
Strategy: Develop and use approaches for capturing
bighorn sheep for translocation that minimize potential
adverse effects of removals on social structure and
perpetuation of traditional migration and movement
patterns of source herd units.
Strategy: Determine the health status of source
herds prior to translocation to help ensure the greatest
probability of transplant success and to minimize any
risk of introducing disease to bighorn sheep in nearby
herd units.
Reintroductions
Management Goal
Establish bighorn sheep herds and populations in
suitable but unoccupied habitat.
Strategy: Conduct a habitat evaluation of proposed
translocations sites as described in George et al. (2008)
to determine if adequate suitable habitat is present
and to project maximum geographic expansion of the
transplant.
Strategy: Select reintroduction sites that have been
identified as historic or suitable habitat, that if needed
have been enhanced through natural events or habitat
management activities.
Strategy: Avoid transplanting bighorn sheep into or
adjacent to habitat occupied by domestic sheep and/or
domestic goats. The anticipated maximum expansion