California Bighorn Sheep Study

Summary: California Bighorn Sheep study done by the Chilcotin Ark Institute in partnership with Trails to Empowerment to learn about population numbers.

The goal of our latest conservation project was to find out if the Relay herd of California Bighorn sheep really were a separate herd from the Tyax-Big Creek herd and where their winter range was. What we discovered would help influence our sheep management.

Manon and Kevan had started the adventure before me as I was wrapping up some things at the ranch while they had snowshoed into the Tyax area to check for sheep there. They had found sheep tracks at 6000ft in the snow drifts, so even in late November the sheep were still up high.

This was the northern sheep’s survival strategy. The deer would leave the alpine in late September or October to come down to their winter ranges. The cougars, bears and wolves would follow their prey down to lower elevations. The sheep would wait them out in the tough snowy areas then, when all the predators had left, they would come down to the lower elevation south slopes where it was less snowy, and sunny most of the winter. All the predators would be gone, allowing them to live in relative safety.

Kevan and Manon had made it back to the old Gang Ranch range cabin in Relay Valley last night and now Kevan was snowshoeing and snowmobiling out to meet me. The Gang Ranch is one of the largest ranching companies, and one of the oldest in BC. Historically they grazed their cattle in the Relay and Graveyard areas.

I met Kevan at the start of the Forest Service Road where he picked me up with the snowmobile. We stopped at the park boundary as we couldn’t take motorized vehicles beyond this point.

We strapped on our snowshoes. The trail to camp was mostly level, with a small hill at the end and there was now a beaten-in path from Kevan and Manon snowshoeing on it. Even with the snowshoes and the beat-in trail, it was tough going through the snow.

It started to get dark, more as a result of the heavy snow clouds than the end of the day. Our visibility dropped as we started to climb the hill. Finally we made it to the flat part at the top then it was downhill to camp. Now, daylight was fading fast.

I expected to smell the wood smoke but all was still and quiet as we rounded the corner and there was the cabin in a large flat area, totally unexpected when the mountain had been right beside us the whole time.

Manon had been fixing up camp all day and had put expanding foam in all the cracks in the floor which made things a lot warmer in here. Although we were here to find the sheep, it was too dark to do that today. We now had to take care of camp chores. It was time to feed the fire, trim the excess expanding foam to make the cabin look good and get dinner ready.

For drinking water, we melted snow on the stove top then let it cool. There was no running water here or creek to pack it from. We cooked dinner on the wood stove and on a small propane camping stove we’d brought. We were enjoying the simple life in the mountains.

The next morning, we strapped on our snowshoes and hiked back the way we’d come in last night. Kevan had seen sheep tracks right on our snowshoe trail last night. We snowshoed up the little hill we had gone down last night then set up our lookout on a little outcrop on the flat part.

We got out our binoculars and started glassing the side hill above us and along Relay Valley. On the other side of the park boundary was another mountain we could glass too, although it was pretty far away.

Just as Kevan said, “Nobody waving”, his words for when he couldn’t see any animals on the mountain, I said, “I see sheep!”. They were moving and there was six of them.

I gave directions so Kevan and Manon could see them. They were on the mountain just outside the park boundary, right above where we’d left the snowmobile.

We could see from their tracks that they had walked over the ridge of the mountain and were heading downhill. Where had they come from and where were they going? From this distance, we couldn’t see the horns to identify if they were male or female, but as it was the rut, we could tell by their behaviour.

One large sheep was following closely behind a smaller sheep. This was clearly a ewe and ram pair. While the ram would mate with all the ewes in a group, right now, he was pairing up with this ewe. The other four sheep all appeared to be ewes based on their size and that they weren’t chasing each other around. There didn’t appear to be any lambs in the group.

While I was busy watching these sheep, Kevan spotted another sheep just 300 yards up the trail, on the side hill. Once he’d pointed it out, I could see it without binoculars. When I put my binoculars on the sheep, I saw it was a ewe and there was a suspiciously sheep-like rock behind her. We watched the ewe watching us. Finally she moved and the “rock” followed her. It was a lamb. The lamb was very chunky so was clearly getting enough food. That was good to see. It had small stubby horns and wasn’t much smaller than the ewe, meaning it was a yearling, one of last year’s lambs.

We sat and watched the sheep for at least half an hour. They wandered about, stopping to graze. The six sheep disappeared from view but then came right back.

Then the sheep all disappeared again. They must have been taking a midday nap in a sunny spot. South facing slopes always had the least snow because the sun melted it off as it passed by each day. As this made the south slopes much warmer than the shady north facing slopes, the sheep all wintered on the south sides. The same was true of mountain goats and mule deer. When it was hot in the summer, they hid out from the heat on the north slopes.

Having seen the two sheep on the side hill earlier, we knew there must be more somewhere near them. There wouldn’t just be a single ewe and lamb. The rest of her group must be nearby, and most likely a big ram or two who were hanging out with them.

We could be pretty sure the Relay herd was totally separate from the Big Creek herd as there were tracks in the Tyax-Big Creek area, and these Relay sheep were only just coming over the mountain from the opposite direction. But that didn’t mean all the sheep in this herd spent all their time together. The rams lived separately all year, expect for the rut when they joined up the with the ewes and lambs. The biggest group of ewes and lambs I’d ever seen was thirty-two. The ewes and lambs didn’t all live in one group, but spread out into smaller groups.

The five ewes we’d seen with the ram were part of the same herd as the single ewe and lamb, but they might be different groups. We had the opportunity to find the rest of the ewe and lamb’s group and get a start on determining how many sheep were in this area and how they moved around.

Manon and Kevan hiked up to the bluff and I stayed at the lookout to glass. Kevan and Manon’s presence on the bluffs might move the sheep around, but they wouldn’t necessarily see them. From our lookout, I would be able to.

I watched Kevan and Manon zig-zag up the mountain and out of sight. I glassed the side hill and the further mountain but only saw the sets of tracks from earlier. As the day wore on, the sun dipped behind the mountains on the other side of the valley and the lookout was cast into shadow. I suddenly realized I was cold which was never a good thing to be in the mountains. The only way to fix that was get into the sun, light a fire or go for a walk.

The last patch of today’s sunshine was on the snowshoe trail below the rock bluffs Kevan and Manon were heading for. So I strapped my snowshoes back on and went for a hike along the trail to get to that patch of sun. Kevan and Manon would come down to this trail and we’d meet somewhere along the way.

As I got closer to the patch of sunshine, I stopped to glass as much of the side hill as I could. I didn’t want to spook the sheep, so had to keep checking for their presence. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw three sheep run across the trail in front of me. They must have been down at the creek getting water. The ewe was the leader. The lamb was fat and solid, much smaller than the ewe and with no horns at all, so it was one of this year’s lambs. The ram’s horns were a little less than half curl, but he was still fairly big.

The ewe wasn’t afraid of me, just curious. She looked at me for a minute then continued zig-zagging up the mountain, the lamb following close behind. The ram seemed to not know what I was. He stared at me for a long time after the ewe had continued up the mountain. Then he ran to catch up.

I held my breath and watched them until they were out of sight. I turned around and headed back to the lookout and met Kevan and Manon on the trail. Still a little in disbelief that I’d seen these three sheep so close to me, I told Kevan and Manon about them. We’d now seen eleven sheep total.

We recorded all the sheep in our wildlife sightings form so we could document them and get a clearer picture of what we’d seen.

The next morning we packed up and were ready to go home. Just as we passed a grizzly rub tree close to the snowmobile, we stopped to glass one last time. Kevan and I had already started walking again when Manon said she could see sheep.

We hurried back to glass. It was a ewe and lamb pair. This lamb had the first stubs of horns. It was one of this year’s lambs, the horns were much smaller than the yearling’s we’d seen yesterday. Being conscious and aware enough to spot the difference in the lambs’ horns meant we were able to confirm these were different ewe and lamb pairs each time, not just the same one seen three times. If we didn’t have this detail, we’d have no way to know if the first ewe and lamb pair and then the second pair I’d seen with the ram were the same or not. This third pair were about an hour’s walk from where we’d seen the sheep yesterday, but that wasn’t too far for a ewe and lamb to have travelled overnight. As we could tell the difference between the lambs’ horns we knew we weren’t double counting and that brought our total to thirteen sheep.

With our estimates from previous years’ wildlife sightings forms suggesting there were about seventy-five sheep in the Relay area, we still had a lot more to find. But for only one and a half days of real sheep scouting in this area, we’d done real good to see this many. The sheep were still moving into their winter range here, more would be coming from wherever their summer range was. We could say with a lot more certainty now that there were two separate herds in the north part of our territory and that they stayed at higher elevations a lot longer than we’d known before.

There are lots of ways we contribute to conservation at the Chilcotin Ark Institute. This story is just one way. You can read this story and more in Charlie Botting’s latest book, Lessons From a Lead Mare, to learn more about the ranch community and our conservation work. You can purchase her book from fortress-press.com.

Does this sound like the lifestyle you want to live? Do you want to contribute to the conservation of the Chilcotin Ark? Take a look at our practicum, work exchange and volunteer opportunities here, and then complete our Wilderness Readiness Survey here, to begin the application process.