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Survey says bighorn numbers 'stable' despite fire, drought in Catalinas

A helicopter owned by Papillon Grand Canyon and chartered by Arizona Game and Fish Dept. flies above the crags of Pusch Ridge in the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson during a Bighorn sheep survey on Monday.

 Rick Wiley, Arizona Daily Star

The bighorn sheep population is holding steady in the Catalina Mountains, a year after a record fire and a punishing dry spell.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department estimates a population of between 55 and 70 sheep in the mountains north of Tucson, based on the results of a two-day helicopter survey of the herd.

Biologists spotted 35 sheep during flights Monday and Tuesday. That’s down from the 40 animals that were observed during the last aerial survey in 2019, but Game and Fish spokesman Mark Hart called the difference “statistically insignificant.”

“The best way to characterize the population is stable,” he said.

This was the first aerial count since the Bighorn Fire scorched almost 120,000 acres in the Catalinas.

Bighorn sheep scramble away from the helicopter during a recent aerial population survey in the Catalina Mountains. Video courtesy of Arizona Game and Fish Department.

The wildfire — sparked, coincidentally, by a lightning strike on an outcrop near Pusch Ridge known as Bighorn Mountain — temporarily displaced the herd, Hart said, but wildlife officials found no evidence that any of the animals were caught up and killed by the flames.

“We spent a lot of time during and after the fire trying to get eyes on them,” he said. “They were able to move away from the fire.”

Biologists wanted to count the herd from the air as soon as the flames were out last year, but all such flights were canceled because of COVID-19 restrictions, Hart said.

The largest blaze in Pima County history was immediately followed by one of the driest monsoon seasons ever recorded in Southern Arizona.

A group of bighorn sheep with a lamb at the center gathers around a saguaro in an aerial photo taken during a helicopter survey of the Catalina Mountains on Monday. The two-day survey resulted in an estimated sheep population of between 55 and 70.

Hart said the drought probably impacted the herd more than the fire did, reducing the survival rate of lambs due to the lack of food and water.

“Conditions on the mountain were pretty austere until the monsoon” this year, he said.

The Catalinas have since turned a deep shade of green, with ample forage that biologists believe could lead to a bumper crop of healthy lambs next year.

Hart said any boost the herd gets from the third-wettest monsoon on record probably won’t show up in the population numbers until the next aerial survey in a year or two.

State game officials are keeping close tabs on the bighorns in the Catalinas because they have a lot invested in the animals.

The range’s last native bighorn sheep herd disappeared sometime in the 1990s, prompting wildlife managers to try to restore the species.

Two bighorn rams stare out at a helicopter during an aerial sheep survey in the Catalina Mountains on Tuesday. The ram with the colored tag in its ear was among those released into the range between 2013 and 2016. The one without a tag was likely born in the Catalinas.

Between 2013 and 2016, 110 sheep from thriving herds elsewhere in Arizona were captured and released into the Catalinas. To keep the transplanted bighorns from being eaten, game officials authorized the controversial killing of eight mountain lions over the same four-year period.

Since then, the sheep have settled into the steep, rocky slopes along the southern and western faces of the range, roughly from Sabino Canyon to Catalina State Park.

“They can be really hard to spot from the air, and they’re really good at taking cover,” Hart said.

All of the sheep released into the range were fitted with tracking collars designed to unlock and fall off once the batteries die, Hart said. Only a handful of those devices are still functioning today.

Bighorn sheep were photographed in the Catalina Mountains during a helicopter survey Tuesday. Biologists counted 35 sheep and estimate the total population to be between 55 and 70 in the mountains north of Tucson.

Several of the animals spotted from the air this past week still sported the color-coded ear tags they were given when they were released into the range. Hart said at least one of those surviving sheep comes from the original group of 30 that was set free in the Catalinas in 2013.

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Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@tucson.com or 573-4283. On Twitter: @RefriedBrean