Another bighorn sheep has died in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson — this one a ewe killed by a mountain lion, state wildlife officials reported.
A pursuit of the lion responsible for the kill was unsuccessful, said Mark Hart, spokesman for the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
Hart also noted that 18 bighorn lambs have been observed in the Catalinas so far this year.
Department researchers discovered the ewe’s carcass on Feb. 17 and determined that the animal was killed by a lion sometime between the evening of Feb. 14 and the morning of Feb. 15.
The ewe’s death reduces the number of bighorns with GPS collars that are known to be alive to 44, Hart said. The number of surviving sheep could be greater. That’s because GPS collars have fallen off some collared animals as they are designed to do when their power source runs out.
Bighorn sheep from healthy herds elsewhere in Arizona were released in the Catalinas in 2013, 2014 and 2015 as part of an effort to rebuild a herd that disappeared from the range in the 1990s.
