Wildlife researcher Jon Mionczynski keeps track of bighorn sheep by listening to radio signals from their collars. “I have the best job in the world,” he says. (ANACLETO RAPPING / Los Angeles Times)
A bighorn looks out from a ridge on Middle Mountain, where lack of selenium in plants is believed to be harming lambs. (ANACLETO RAPPING / Los Angeles Times)
Scientists were baffled as to why ewes were taking lambs on long treks through dangerous areas to mineral licks. (ANACLETO RAPPING / Los Angeles Times)
Jawbones of dead sheep found on Middle Mountain. (ANACLETO RAPPING / Los Angeles Times)
A group of ewes and young lambs find shelter among the rocks on Middle Mountain. (ANACLETO RAPPING / Los Angeles Times)
Researcher Jon Mionczynski stops to fill his water bottle in a small creek of snowmelted water on Middle Mountain. (ANACLETO RAPPING / Los Angeles Times)
Researcher Jon Mionczynski has been tracking the sheep, doing soil and rainwater chemical analysis on Middle Mountain in Wyoming. (ANACLETO RAPPING / Los Angeles Times)
The herd, which used to number about 1,250, dropped by 30% in two years during the early 1990s and never recovered. Since then only about two out of every 10 lambs have survived (ANACLETO RAPPING / Los Angeles Times)
A ewe with her young lamb peers from behind large boulders. (ANACLETO RAPPING / Los Angeles Times)
A barren ewe looks out from from a rocky ridge. (ANACLETO RAPPING / Los Angeles Times)
