Golden Bighorn Sheep Collaring project

[Greenthumbed]

https://fwcp.ca/project/conserving-bighorn-sheep-in-our-columbia-region/

Hey Folks,

The Golden District Rod and Gun Club has been working hard to help protect the Kicking Horse Bighorn sheep herd. The herd is down to only 11 individuals. We’ve lost 5 sheep to highway and train collisions this year alone!
The Club has a collaring project where we had 5 sheep collared, two of which were killed in the past month. One of these was an 11 year old giant ram!
The Trans Canada highway is being upgraded through the Kicking Horse canyon which is right where the sheep herd lives. The collar project’s purpose is to collect data to track the movements pre, during and post construction of the highway to help the in the decision making process for major events. This is the 4th and final phase of the highway upgrade and will take 4 years to complete. The collaring project has been underway since early 2019.
Please take a minute to watch the short film the Golden District Rod and Gun and their partner have made to bring awareness to this project. click the link below...

https://fwcp.ca/project/conserving-bighorn-sheep-in-our-columbia-region/ (https://fwcp.ca/project/conserving-bighorn-sheep-in-our-columbia-region/)

We’d like to thank our financial partners:
Wild Sheep Society of BC
Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program
Ministry of FLNROND
without there support this project would not be happening!

[Ride Red]

Wow, sad to see them down to only 11. I’ve been fortunate to see them many times since the early ’80s and hopefully there is a positive outcome for these remaining few. This highway has become a trucking raceway over the years and without guard fencing and critter over/underpasses, it’ll be an uphill battle.

[LBM]

So what was the population when at its highest. Sounds like your a bit to late. People have to decide what they want its just like the sheep around Radium. People want them as lawn ornaments but that only turns them into hood ornaments except in radium they loose into the double digits every year, and now they have health issues in the heard to deal with as well. You want them to be wild or not? Lots of areas around radium were shut down to hunting for people didnt think it was right to shoot sheep, but more die on the road/tracks in a year then killed hunting. When a cougar comes and kills one of the sheep its a big panick and the cat has to be killed, when in reality you need the predators to help keep the sheep wild.
Quit posting up pretty pictures of the sheep alive and of you guys collaring them saying your trying to save them post up the pics of them smeared across the highway or of the ones that have lied in one spot for a week slowly dieing from busted legs and internal damage, people need to see what is really killing them.
You should have been going to government to get a permit auctioned off for one of the golden rams, could have got a few hundred thousand dollars to put to use helping the rest instead of ending up dead on the road/tracks, like the majority of them will.

[Cabled]

Great job Golden Rod and Gun! These are the kinds of things that show hunters in a positive light, hopefully the government will take this into account on future highway/rail upgrades. Thanks for posting!

[Rob Chipman]

Yeah, great work.

Question for you Chad - when you say the herd was down to 11 and 5 were killed this year alone by the highway, does that mean a) the herd is currently 6 (if not, what's the best guess at population) and b) is the "last year alone" the last 12 months, counting back form now, or the calendar year 2020, or just 2021 YTD?

Thanks!

[Greenthumbed]

Yeah, great work.

Question for you Chad - when you say the herd was down to 11 and 5 were killed this year alone by the highway, does that mean a) the herd is currently 6 (if not, what's the best guess at population) and b) is the "last year alone" the last 12 months, counting back form now, or the calendar year 2020, or just 2021 YTD?

Thanks!

Hey Rob,
When we started the project in 2019 there are was 16-17 sheep. We observed 3 new lambs in 2019 and 4 lambs in 2020. Winter is tough on the little ones, I guess so the population has had trained the same. We’ve also observed rams come and go. One mature ram left the herd for a season and came back and a young ram joined the herd from elsewhere. Sadly neither one of these rams had collars so we couldn’t track their movements. Anyways, to answer your question. With the recent loss of 5 our estimate is down to 11. Those 5 were killed between July 2020-March 2021. This was a particularly bad stretch for them. We don’t usually see this many deaths in this short of time.
At the height of the herds population there was 53 animals in 2007. 19 of our sheep were relocated to the Whiteswan and Coyote creek areas in an attempt to repopulate that area. Sadly, none of those sheep remain in those areas. From that point til now the Kicking Horse herd has been in steady decline. Mostly, due to loss of habitat.
The club (as stated in the film) is working on a large UWR enhancement project in the Kicking horse valley with sheep and elk being the target species. We are a very busy little club that has tried in recent year to effect positive change for wildlife in our backyard.

[Ride Red]

Was it predation up Coyote Creek or?

[Greenthumbed]

So what was the population when at its highest. Sounds like your a bit to late. People have to decide what they want its just like the sheep around Radium. People want them as lawn ornaments but that only turns them into hood ornaments except in radium they loose into the double digits every year, and now they have health issues in the heard to deal with as well. You want them to be wild or not? Lots of areas around radium were shut down to hunting for people didnt think it was right to shoot sheep, but more die on the road/tracks in a year then killed hunting. When a cougar comes and kills one of the sheep its a big panick and the cat has to be killed, when in reality you need the predators to help keep the sheep wild.
Quit posting up pretty pictures of the sheep alive and of you guys collaring them saying your trying to save them post up the pics of them smeared across the highway or of the ones that have lied in one spot for a week slowly dieing from busted legs and internal damage, people need to see what is really killing them.
You should have been going to government to get a permit auctioned off for one of the golden rams, could have got a few hundred thousand dollars to put to use helping the rest instead of ending up dead on the road/tracks, like the majority of them will.

One of the many things I have learned since becoming an active conservationist is that you can’t please everyone and that there will always be critics for what you do. The greatest hunter/conservationist, Theodore Roosevelt had as many or more critics than supporters. There are many ways to skin a cat, but not very many ways without getting bloody.

[Greenthumbed]

Was it predation up Coyote Creek or?
Yes. I believe so. From what I understand the herd will follow a matriarch ewe, but if that ewe doesn’t know where to go to escape threats then they are sitting ducks.

[Ride Red]

Back in the ‘80s we hunted Coyote Creek through to Top of the World. I’m assuming the sheep were released up sheep camp then.

[Greenthumbed]

Back in the ‘80s we hunted Coyote Creek through to Top of the World. I’m assuming the sheep were released up sheep camp then.
Could be... I’m not familiar with the area. To be honest with you the relocation was before my time of involvement with the club.

[Greenthumbed]

Great job Golden Rod and Gun! These are the kinds of things that show hunters in a positive light, hopefully the government will take this into account on future highway/rail upgrades. Thanks for posting!
Thanks for the encouragement, Cabled. The club made a decision a few years ago to do something about the wildlife and habitat in our backyard instead of waiting for someone else to do it for us. We figured it would be too late by the time that help arrived.

[Imdone]

Great work Green thumb
It's folks like you that help to build wildlife.

[Deer_Slayer]

I lived in Golden from 1990 to 2003. I lived at the hilltop with sheep lying in my yard and the rams would head butt the sides of the mobile homes up there. There were many sheep at that time. Last I saw there was a fence all round that area and no sheep to be seen. The fences are funnelling the sheep onto the highway. When I lived there it was very rare to see a sheep killed on that stretch of road. I also know there was abundant cougar and bear activity in that area. If there are only 11 sheep left it must be predators and that fencing causing it. Get rid of that fence and let the sheep move freely as they did before. The RCMP can start enforcing speed limits at the hilltop.

[Greenthumbed]

It’s true. There were many more sheep back then and you are right, the fencing has a lot to do with the sheep population. The fence has segmented their habit. They aren’t able to move as freely as they used to. Back in those days there was a lot more sheep. Like I said in an earlier post, about half the herd was relocated to another area in the east Kootenay. Since that time the highway has seen much change and the sheep’s habit altered significantly. The herd has been on a steady decline since.

[Deer_Slayer]

But with all that said. You guys do a great job up there and thanks for that!

[Greenthumbed]

Thanks for saying so, Deer Slayer. We appreciate the encouragement. We are doing our best to make some positive change over here in Golden.