The Roundup : Man Takes a Hand in Helping Nature Re-establish State’s Herds of Shy, Nimble Nelson Bighorn Sheep

The 25 men and women in Cow Canyon Saddle, as the small patch of level ground in the San Gabriel Mountains is called, stood quietly in the cold morning air. They drank coffee and talked a little. But mostly they waited.

Finally a voice sounded over the radio: “Start the helicopter, 10-4.”

The bighorn sheep capture had begun.

Veterinarians and other staffers from the state Department of Fish and Game checked their supplies; syringes, thermometers, ear tags. And volunteers stood by at the makeshift bighorn processing center, waiting for the helicopter to appear with its precious cargo.

In all, 22 curly-horned Nelson bighorns were captured Tuesday in the Angeles National Forest, where the herd of 700 is considered by wildlife biologists to be at peak capacity, perhaps too big. The sheep were later transferred to the Los Padres National Forest in Ventura County, where no bighorns have been seen for more than 60 years.

It was the second sheep transfer out of the San Gabriels in two years, Fish and Game officials said, and the move cost about $3,000 per animal. The new herd in the Los Padres will be the sixth to be re-established in the state, where many of the shy, nimble creatures were killed by disease or illegal hunting. The animal has been a protected species in California since 1873.

According to David Jessup, a Fish and Game veterinarian and wildlife pathologist, Tuesday’s effort took intense planning.

First, a baiting area, where bighorns could be attracted to eat, had to be carved out of the steep craggy terrain inhabited by the 100-pound, sandy-gray beasts. A 70-foot net was strung above it, to be dropped eventually over the unsuspecting sheep.

Then Bill McIntyre, a retired Lancaster man who volunteered for the job, camped out there for more than a month, putting fermented apple pulp and alfalfa under the net every day to lure the animals.

By Tuesday, it was time. Twenty-two sheep were there when the net fell.

“We’ll record age and sex, we’ll assess their medical condition, we’ll give them a series of injections,” Jessup said at the processing area.

“We’ll have to do it all within 10 minutes per animal,” he noted. “These animals suffer from something we call capture stress syndrome.”

The department learned by trial and error how to capture the sheep, he added. The workers learned, for example, that bighorns refuse many foods but like alfalfa or apple pulp, and that the early winter--before the rains regenerate mountain vegetation--is the best time to get their attention.

‘No One Could Talk’

Shortly after dawn, a crew of 30 hiked up to the baiting area. “No one could talk,” said Bud Sheble, director of the California Conservation Corps, who was among them, because the animals’ hearing is so acute.

Once Fish and Game men dropped the net, the crew ran to put hoods over the sheeps’ eyes to help calm them, to hobble and tie them to litters that the helicopter used to take them for processing.

There were 17 ewes and five rams, ranging between 1 and 7 years old. While the processing crew worked, volunteers wrote the vital statistics on tally sheets: “Respiration 48. . . . Heart rate 130. . . . Ear tag 751. . . . Temperature 105. . . . 108 pounds. . . .”

By noon, the sheep were in a trailer, ready to leave for Ventura County.

“It’s probably as important for the health of these sheep that we move them as it is to start a new population,” Jessup said.