Outdoor Notes : Biologists Plan Capture of 30 Bighorns

Biologists hope to capture about 30 Nelson bighorn sheep in the San Gabriel Mountains this week and relocate them to Los Padres National Forest, where bighorns were last seen in 1915.

Department of Fish and Game biologist Vern Bleich, project leader, said he hoped to capture the bighorns, weather permitting, in the Cattle Canyon area of Angeles National Forest with a 70-by-70-foot drop net. The bait is a bighorn delicacy: Fermented apple pulp and alfalfa. The animals will be processed near the trap site and later released near the Sespe Condor Sanctuary in Los Padres National Forest in Ventura County.

Bleich said groups of 20 to 30 bighorns captured in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino ranges may be relocated to Los Padres in coming years in order to reach a desired 100-bighorn population in Los Padres.

Records show bighorns once inhabited the present-day Los Padres area in abundance, but that illegal hunting, disease from domestic sheep and competition with domestic livestock led to their demise.

Nelson bighorns are the most numerous of the state’s three varieties of bighorns--Nelson, California and peninsula. The state’s total bighorn population is estimated to be about 4,500, of which about 3,275 are Nelsons.

Prado Tiro, the 1984 Olympic Games’ shooting venue in Chino, has scheduled 36 international shooting events in 1986, beginning with an international skeet competition Jan 17-19.

Competitions are scheduled in international skeet, international rifle, Olympic trap and international pistol. A featured event is the U.S. International Shooting Championships June 14-28, with skeet, trap, rifle, airgun and running game target competition.

Briefly Game wardens in Dorian, Ontario, believe trophy-size lake trout that disappeared recently from a government hatchery were stolen, with some later reappearing as winning fish at area fishing tournaments.. . .The DFG is looking for volunteers to help out in seven big game projects from January to July, involving projects ranging from big game guzzler construction jobs to counting bighorn sheep in the Mojave Desert’s Old Woman Mountains.. . .The Mzuri Wildlife Foundation Conference and wildlife art show is scheduled for Feb. 6-8 at the MGM Grand Hotel, Reno.. . .The DFG says it has no leads in the cases of five Rocky Mountain elk killed by poachers in the past six months near Shasta Lake, Burney and Oak Run.. . .Deer tag returns from successful hunters are running about 11% behind last year’s level in 16 Northern California zones, but statewide returns are about even with last year’s, the DFG says.. . .Volunteers are gathering long rows of manzanita brush and sinking it at Lake Shastina in Siskikyou County to provide habitat for juvenile bass, crappie and bluegill.. . .Over 70,000 long-living, frequent-spawning Florida black crappie were recently planted in Clear Lake, the state’s largest natural freshwater lake entirely within the state’s borders.