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Nine Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep have been added to a new herd being established by Colorado Parks and Wildlife in the northern Sangre de Cristo Mountains of central Colorado.

The sheep join 13 bighorns that were moved into the mountains of northeastern Saguache County in a similar operation in 2010.

(The sheep in the photo, above, by The Gazette's Jerilee Bennett, are from the herd that hangs out in Garden of the Gods and quarry area of the Rampart Range)

Prior to the 2010 transplants, the northern Sangre de Cristo Mountains had not had bighorn sheep since the 1980s. Sheep populations in the southern Sangre have thrived in recent years and provide a good source of sheep for the transplant operation.
 
"This is traditional bighorn sheep habitat and it's an exciting part of our work to get to help restore this population," said Dan Prenzlow, southeast region wildlife manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, in a news release. "The rest is up to the sheep, but we think the habitat is very good to support them as this small population grows for generations to come."
 
The bighorn were netted by helicopter crews and then flown off steep mountainsides to a nearby staging area where they were loaded into horse trailers and driven near their release site. Then they were plucked up again by helicopter and set down on steep alpine terrain near Hunts Peak.
 
The sheep were checked by a veterinarian and fitted with radio telemetry tracking collars and ear tags. The collars will help biologists assess their habitat use and survival and reproduction rates.
 
Read more about bighorn sheep and the Colorado Parks and Wildlife bighorn conservation program.

The project to bring bighorn back to the northern Sangre would not have been possible without assistance from the National Park Service at the Great Sand Dunes National Preserve and the Rio Grande and San Isabel National Forests, wildlife officials said.