LUBBOCK, Texas -- Bighorn sheep had all but disappeared about 50 years ago from the West Texas mountains where they once flourished. Now there are so many that they're being hunted. Years of restoration efforts have proven successful and now there are at least 822 of the agile animals, said Mike Pittman, who directs wildlife management areas in the Trans-Pecos region. A helicopter survey in late August tallied the desert bighorn sheep numbers, he said.
"And we know we're not seeing them all, naturally," said Pittman, who estimated there may be as many as 1,000 bighorn sheep. "They occupy the very roughest habitat that's out here." Their growing numbers are reflected by the 12 hunting permits for bighorns issued statewide this year, the most since efforts to rebuild the population began in 1954. The previous high came two seasons ago when eight permits were allowed. Hunting permits are based on the count of older rams, which are not crucial to the herd.
Nine of this season's permits will be for sheep hunts on privately owned land where surplus rams were spotted. Most landowners who receive the permits sell them and use the proceeds to improve bighorn and other wildlife habitat on their acreage, Pittman said.
Christopher Gill, who lives in San Antonio and owns a 32,000-acre ranch just south of the Sierra Diablo Wildlife Management Area in far West Texas, is one such landowner. This year he was issued his fourth bighorn permit since 2000 and sold it for $60,000. The sale of one of those permits helped pay for 80 miles of pipe that provides water for bighorn and other wildlife. Gill's seen the bighorn numbers increase since he bought the land six years ago.
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