Sierra Bighorn Declared an Endangered Species by U.S.

The Fish and Wildlife Service declared the Sierra Nevada bighorn an endangered species Tuesday, a move that could lead to the shooting of mountain lions found to have preyed on the sheep.

Only about 100 adult bighorns survive in the High Sierra wilderness, mostly around Yosemite and Sequoia-Kings Canyon national parks in California and along the Nevada line.

“Time is running out for the Sierra bighorn,” said John Wehausen, president of the Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Foundation in Bishop, Calif.

“With the service’s action, state and federal agencies have the tools they need to protect these rare animals from the threats that jeopardize their continued existence,” he said.

Federal biologists determined that the bighorns warrant emergency protection under the Endangered Species Act on at least a temporary basis primarily because of threats of disease from domestic sheep and predation from mountain lions.

The emergency listing is effective through Dec. 16. In the meantime, the agency will take public comment through June 21 on a proposal to declare the sheep endangered on a permanent basis.

Fish and Game authorities in California historically shot mountain lions that were threatening bighorn sheep herds, but California voters in 1990 approved a ballot measure banning the sport hunting of big cats.

The federal listing overrides the state prohibition and would again allow the shooting of problem mountain lions if necessary, said Jay Watson, regional director for the Wilderness Society in San Francisco.

Mountain lion advocates maintain that the lions are only part of a complex deterioration of the region’s ecosystem that is plaguing the bighorn sheep and other fish and wildlife there.