North Dakota delays bighorn translocation

Tired of having to stay put to avoid infection? It’s not just you. The North Dakota Game and Fish Department had planned to remove a bighorn sheep herd that was struggling in the southern Badlands and replace it with sheep translocated from Montana. But officials decided to delay the move out of fears that domestic herds near the release sites could spread disease into the new herd.

“We don’t think it would be a responsible decision on our part to bring healthy sheep into areas (and potentially) mingle in with those domestics and bring disease back into that population,” Jeb Williams, wildlife chief for Game and Fish in Bismarck, told the Grand Forks Herald.

Read more from the Grand Forks Herald.