Despite seeing the number of bighorn sheep substantially decline in recent years, conservationists have reported that their population in the Sierra Nevada mountain range is potentially on the rebound, according to LAist.
The bighorn sheep of the Sierra Nevada have already lived through an estimated three to six ice ages, but their populations have been more threatened than ever recently as they combat the effects of planet-overheating air pollution and the threat of predatory mountain lions.
According to Tom Stephenson, the head of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Recovery Program, the mountain lion issue is more feasible for everyday citizens to address.
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While the state of California used to regularly kill off mountain lions, that approach to helping the bighorn sheep has lost favor in recent years, for obvious reasons (killing native species because they are eating their natural prey is not good).
Instead, conservationists like Stephenson advocate for relocating problematic mountain lions, which can be, needless to say, difficult. "If we could take those actions as soon as we see a threat, that would be a huge benefit to the [bighorn] population," Stephenson told LAist.
What approach to take with native predators is something of an ongoing problem in California. Another native species, gray wolves, recently moved back into the state of their own accord — much to the chagrin of the state's cattle ranchers, who now sometimes have to deal with one of their cows being taken.
That situation is a bit more clear-cut, as the wolves are a native species (and have legal protections) and the cattle are not, but don't tell that to any cattle ranchers. The issue remains highly contentious.
As far as the bighorn sheep are concerned, conservationists are forced to take a bit of a wait-and-see approach as far as how much snow the Sierra Nevada gets in the coming winters, which will impact where the sheep move to (and whether they end up fully in mountain lion territory). However, people like Stephenson seem cautiously optimistic.
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