billdawg's Identifications

No helicopter parenting here!

Presumably from the Hubbard Gap subherd, one of five reintroduced subherds in Nebraska. Originally native to Nebraska, bighorns were extirpated from the state by the early 1900s by overhunting, habitat loss and disease. While some earlier sources identified Nebraska’s original/extirpated sheep as the distinct subspecies “Badlands Bighorn” or “Audubon’s Bighorn” (O.c. auduboni), more recent research calls that distinct subspecies into serious doubt. Nebraska’s current sheep (O.c. canadensis) were reintroduced beginning in the early 1980s from herds in South Dakota, Colorado, Montana and most recently Alberta, Canada.

October 2020 presentation on history and current status of bighorn reintroduction in Nebraska.

Member of the subherd ranging near Highway 71 in the Wildcat Hills south of Gering, Nebraska, most likely from the Hubbard Gap herd, one of five reintroduced herds in Nebraska. Originally native to Nebraska, bighorns were extirpated from the state by the early 1900s by overhunting, habitat loss and disease. While some earlier sources identified Nebraska’s original/extirpated sheep as the distinct subspecies “Badlands Bighorn” or “Audubon’s Bighorn” (O.c. auduboni), more recent research calls that distinct subspecies into serious doubt. Nebraska’s current sheep (O.c. canadensis) were reintroduced beginning in the early 1980s from herds in South Dakota, Colorado, Montana and most recently Alberta, Canada.

Trailcam images. Appears to be the same individual captured with several trailcam placements along this particular 3/4 mile section of drainage the last few months; traveling north.

UPDATE: Last 2 images added, recorded with different camera a few hundred feet north of first camera location.