Other bighorns are captured via the net-gun, fired from a helicopter hovering overhead. Once secured with restraints and blindfolds by the ground support team (again, designed to minimize stress-induced panic among the animals), they are airlifted to the M.A.S.H site. It isn't exactly flying first-class, but by transporting the sheep in pairs with a harness sling beneath the helicopter, wildlife experts are able to expedite the capture, examination, tagging, and transport process as much as possible.
Photo by Bill Decker
Photo Gallery Comments (1)
Thinking about it, this was probably pretty difficult to do. It said that the range on those tranquilizer guns is only 50 yards, which when hunting rams is rather difficult to get into that range. Also, the terrain that these Bighorns live in is very steep. I would imagine that if they sedated an animal the risk of it falling and injuring itself, just due to the terrain was high. I have seen videos of rams/sheep that were shot and fell a long ways down the hillside which resulted in damage to the horns. A huge disappointment I to the hunter. It sounds though as if the division was able to re-locate these animals without incident. A good job for sure.
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Thinking about it, this was probably pretty difficult to do. It said that the range on those tranquilizer guns is only 50 yards, which when hunting rams is rather difficult to get into that range. Also, the terrain that these Bighorns live in is very steep. I would imagine that if they sedated an animal the risk of it falling and injuring itself, just due to the terrain was high. I have seen videos of rams/sheep that were shot and fell a long ways down the hillside which resulted in damage to the horns. A huge disappointment I to the hunter. It sounds though as if the division was able to re-locate these animals without incident. A good job for sure.
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