By any measure, it was an unusual day for 46 bighorn sheep
residing on BLM-managed public land near the Missouri River
north of Winifred, Mont. This particular late-winter morning
dawned gray and cold with a thin blanket of fresh snow. Prompted
by their need-to-feed, the bighorns stirred early and moved from
their bedding areas in the steep coulees common to the Missouri
Breaks. They zigzagged their way to the snow covered benches
where they would browse on the variety of grasses and forbs that
still held a little late winter nutrition. That’s where the
routine nature of their day ended. Suddenly, a helicopter broke
from the cloud cover to the west and held its position over the
bighorns as they ran toward the inherent safety of the steep
draws. In what had to be a quick (but puzzling) series of
events, some sheep were netted, blindfolded, hobbled, bagged,
flown to a transfer site, held on straw bales, poked, probed,
swabbed, vaccinated, and placed in a horse trailer. Later that
day, when the trailer door nex