Efforts to capture bighorn sheep from Wild Horse Island in Flathead Lake got off to a slow start this week, with the animals taking cover in trees and wildlife officials spending an extra day trying to catch them.
Officials through Friday had captured 29 bighorns as part of their plan to transplant 50 to the Tendoy mountains, about 40 miles south of Dillon.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman John Fraley said officials would try to bag more sheep Saturday using a helicopter with workers who fire a net gun to capture the animals.
“This is third straight year we’ve done this, so when they hear that helicopter coming they bee-line it to their security in the trees,” said Bruce Sterling, a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist based out of Thompson Falls.
Officials say the 2,160-acre island has about 230 bighorns, well above the objective of 125 recommended by wildlife officials.
“The habitat is extremely high-quality,” Sterling said. “Their reproductive rate is good, and their survival rate is really good because they have no predators on the island.”
While the island has too many bighorns, the transplant area has only about 50 and could use more.
“It’s a total yin and yang thing between the regions,” said Craig Fager, a state wildlife biologist from Region 3 in the Dillon area.
Pneumonia die-offs in 1993 and 1999 caused the Tendoy herd to drop from its peak of about 250 bighorns. Fager said the herd was last given a boost with additional transplanted bighorns in 2002, and officials hope to increase the population to 200.
The capture goal from the island is 40 ewes, five lams and five yearling rams.
“Mature rams don’t transport well,” said Sterling, noting they can harm other sheep in a trailer by becoming aggressive, and that they also sometimes wander away from release areas.