Tracking bighorn sheep with the Bighorn Institute

Tracking bighorn sheep is no easy task. But that’s what biologists at the Bighorn Institute do each and every day.

“We have a target list of animals in the wild anywhere from Palm Springs to La Quinta that need to be seen. And we’ll run telemetry where we’re driving through listening to the radio collars, making sure they’re on normal mode,” said Aimee Byard, associate director of the institute.

One of the hardest parts of the job is actually spotting the sheep.

“Bighorn sheep, one of their adaptations is to blend in and not be seen by predators and things like that, and it can be incredibly difficult to spot them in our mountains here,” Byard said.

The Bighorn Institute was founded in 1982 to find out why so many bighorn sheep were dying. In the institute’s 30 years of existence researchers have accomplished a lot.

“We’ve had over 145 lambs born at the institute and we’ve released 127 sheep into the wild in the hills around Rancho Mirage and in Palm Springs. And outside experts have said our efforts have kept two herds from disappearing,” Byard said.

Despite all of their success, the institute still faces challenges.

“These sheep are going into the flatlands as far as 4 miles away from the nearest mountain. That’s crazy. So that’s a threat to them and now they’re posing safety (hazards) for humans. Because motorists now need to be looking for bighorn sheep where they don’t need to be looking for them,” Byard said.

They said their focus over the next few years will be protecting the existing herds and working to get a fence put up in La Quinta like the one in Rancho Mirage so fewer sheep make it down the mountains.

The Bighorn Institute is holding its annual fundraiser and golf tournament Nov. 20-21. It also is launching a citizen science program where people can download an app called iNaturalist and log sightings of bighorn sheep. For more information on how you can get involved with the institute, check out their website www.bighorninstitute.org.