Passport to Texas

Relocating Desert Bighorn Sheep, photo by Earl Nottingham, TPWD

Welcoming Bighorn Sheep Back Home Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

There’s a special quality about Far West Texas; and, as Froylan Hernandez can tell you. When Desert Bighorn Sheep are on the landscape, it’s awe-inspiring.

When I’m up on top of Elephant Mountain, my first glimpse of them, it’s overwhelming. Even if it’s just a single animal.

Hernandez is Desert Bighorn Sheep Program Leader for Texas Parks & Wildlife.

Historically, the native Texas Desert Bighorn Sheep occurred in about 16 mountain ranges out here in the Trans Pecos. Mainly due to unregulated hunting, diseases associated with the introduction of domestic sheep and goats, and net wire fencing – they brought the demise of the Desert Bighorn. And by the early 1960s, they were all gone from Texas.

For more than fifty years, Texas Parks and Wildlife and partners have worked to restore the Bighorn to its home range in Texas.

Luckily, the population in Texas is now big enough, we’re using those sources to transplant the animals to Big Bend Ranch State park.

And Big Bend Ranch SP superintendent Ron Trevizo welcomes them to a new home on the range.

When we started talking about the release coming in – to release the Desert Bighorn Sheep at Big Bend Ranch, I’m like – Yea, that’s great!

See how agency biologists translocate Desert Bighorn Sheep when you check out the Texas Parks and Wildlife YouTube Channel.

The Wildlife restoration program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

TPW TV: Good Guzzlers Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

For most of us, the word “guzzler” has a negative connotation, but not for the groups working to restore bighorn sheep.

04— A guzzler is essentially a rainwater collection system for wildlife.

Mark Garrett is Texas Parks and Wildlife Project Leader for Trans-Pecos Wildlife Management Areas.

09— We’ve got two large panels of sheet metal that collect the rainwater, funnel that down into storage tanks that feed to wildlife friendly watering stations.

Adequate fresh water is essential for the restoration of big horn sheep. During a segment on next week’s Texas Parks and Wildlife PBS Television Series, see how volunteers from the Big Horn Society, Like Kathy Boone, install new guzzlers on the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area.

13— Work projects normally last a couple of days, and they are always in extremely remote areas. For this work project, we’ve had over a hundred people here to help us build two water catchment devices we call guzzlers.

Workers must travel by helicopter to the mountain tops to construct the guzzlers, but volunteer Charlie Barnes says the challenges that come with the work are worth it.

11— This land is suitable for all the game that live here. It was missing one thing. Water. And now it’ll have water. That’s conservation right there.

View the segment on Good Guzzlers next week on the Texas Parks and Wildlife PBS TV series. Check your local listings.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series. Through your purchases of hunting and fishing equipment, and motorboat fuels, over 40 million dollars in conservation efforts are funded in Texas each year.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.