Diseased bighorn sheep in cross hairs

WILDLIFE officials charged with saving endangered peninsular bighorn sheep near Palm Springs are considering shooting some of the animals to prevent a disease outbreak ravaging the herd.

One or two sheep may have to be killed for necropsy to identify the cause of pneumonia that recently killed seven animals in the Santa Rosa Mountains, says Jane Hendron of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Also, the service and the state Department of Fish and Game may use sharpshooters to prevent sheep from crossing Highway 74 south of Palm Desert and infecting a larger herd, officials say. No final decision has been made.

Walter Boyce, director of the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center, says the die-off has claimed old and young sheep as well as animals reared in the wild and in captivity.

“It’s what we call an all-age die-off, which fits the picture of one of those epidemics that has the potential to go through the entire herd,” Boyce says.

The number of peninsular bighorn sheep plunged from 1,200 in the late 1970s to 280 in 1996, but the sheep have rebounded to about 705 animals today. The herd is threatened by human encroachment, cougars, air pollution and disease spread from livestock.

-- Scott Doggett