Endangered Desert Bighorn Sheep Airlifted Across Texas Skies in Dramatic Conservation Effort

Mar. 15, 2025

Seeing sheep flying through the sky in Texas may be less rare than one would think!

“Today we are taking [the] surplus of animals off of Elephant Mountain and translocating them to the Franklin Mountains State Park to hopefully start another healthy, viable population there,” Froylan Hernandez, Texas Parks and Wildlife Desert Bighorn Sheep Program Leader, said in the video. “Pretty exciting!”

Chase Fountain, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

He then went on to detail the process, noting that when the “helicopter comes in,” the wildlife specialists grab a sheep and “put them on the processing tables,” “collect the tissues” and “put collars on them” before putting the creatures on “transport trailers.”

“… It’s high energy, high energy, lots of excitement,” he said. “We got lots of folks, lots of partners here, lots of volunteers making this operation happen.”

He continued, “I think it’s collectively our responsibility to make sure the bighorns that we have now — the big ones that we have now — are here to stay and for the enjoyment of future generations.”

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There are only approximately 80,000 North American bighorn sheep on the continent currently — much less than the between 150,000 and 200,000 that existed before the 1800’s. Of that figure, there are only 13,000 desert bighorn sheep in North America total, per theNational Park Service.

source: people.com