Helmuth Kanduth
Mountain Goat
What do wild sheep and agriculture have in common? In many areas of British Columbia they share the same space, where vineyards, orchards and farms occupy the lower valleys and reach up to the rugged hillsides. California Bighorn Sheep are iconic symbols of the dry interior valleys. Sighting a ram on top of a rocky bluff or a ewe with young by the side of the road reminds me that I’m lucky to live in a community where wild things live along side us. But these wild residents can use some help from people working in agriculture.
California Bighorn Sheep were once distributed widely throughout the Southern Interior of British Columbia. Now, only small populations of wild sheep occur over their historic range, so they are considered a species at risk. Over time, California Bighorn Sheep have lost habitat as our communities and agricultural activities have expanded onto their grassland ranges.
Sheep have different summer and winter habitats, as well as special lambing areas, so small populations do not always adapt well to displacement. Forest density has increased with fire suppression and decreased sheep habitat. Since sheep prefer open country where they can see potential predators, they avoid the densely forested areas.
Properties that are fenced can potentially be blocking herds from travelling their regular routes between winter and summer range or foraging and watering sites. Fencing slightly within a property line rather that right at the edge, will leave a small corridor for ungulates to travel along rather than being forced onto roadways.
The fences also serve another important purpose by keeping wild sheep away from domestics.
Bighorns are susceptible to diseases, particularly when their nutrition is poor and other factors like human activity, traffic and dogs add stresses. Wild sheep have been shown to be very susceptible to diseases carried by domestic sheep. Research has shown that even one contact is often followed by fatalities to multiple herds.
In the winter of 1999-2000, the South Okanagan herd suffered a major die-off from bacterial pneumonia which reduced the population by 60 to 75 percent. The population has taken a decade to recover from this episode which was strongly suspected to have started from contact with a domestic sheep flock.
Wild and domestic sheep are very curious and will interact with their cloven-hoofed cousins. To prevent a serious disease transfer from happening again, for the past three years, wild sheep have been euthanized as a precaution when they are found in contact with domestic sheep.
The B.C. Ministry of Environment is asking for the cooperation of people living near bighorn sheep habitat to not raise sheep or goats as pets or livestock. Sheep producers with large commercial flocks are encouraged to erect double fences which prevent “nose to nose” contact.
The “Wild/domestic Sheep Separation Project” has been established to inform sheep owners about the danger of contact between the two populations. Two agricultural properties near bighorn sheep habitat have had help to erect double-fencing around their pastures which keeps the wild and domestic sheep populations away from each other.
The Regional District Okanagan Similkameen has adopted a bylaw that, in a designated high risk contact zone (currently only in the South Okanagan), discourages keeping pet sheep and requires any new commercial sheep producers to bear the cost of double fencing. Changes to provincial legislation that are needed to mesh with this initiative are still being considered.
We can support wild sheep survival by working with our neighbours and communities to retain areas of natural habitat and sheep movement corridors and keep dogs under control to prevent harassment of sheep and other wildlife. Hopefully healthy bighorn populations can be maintained forever to roam the hillsides and grasslands of the dry interior as symbols of the “wild things” we share our world with