Counting sheep at 14,000 feet: Inside Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s bighorn sheep survey on Pikes Peak
An uptick in pneumonia among bighorn lambs in the Pikes Peak herd has state wildlife officials on alert after this year’s count
Colorado Parks and Wildlife/Courtesy Photo
By the time the sun started to ease above the horizon, Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologist Ty Woodward was already at the 14,115-foot summit of Pikes Peak peering into his spotting scope, looking for bighorn sheep.
The summit, marked with patches of new snow, was quiet as he scanned the grassy slopes and rocky ridgelines for Colorado’s once-threatened state mammal. Below, about 60 more biologists, wildlife officers and trained volunteers with binoculars were dispersed across the mountain, traversing boulders and steep trails on the same mission.
“There’s definitely some sleuthing that goes on,” said Woodward, who organizes CPW’s annual bighorn sheep count atop America’s Mountain.
An accurate count of the Pikes Peak herd and a ratio of rams to ewes, or males to females, is crucial to determine trends in the population size, assess herd health and help make hunting license recommendations.
Read more from Olivia Prentzel at ColoradoSun.com.
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