The California Department of Fish and Game, U.S. Forest Service, and Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep want to thank all of the volunteers who participated in the March 4th survey. 

    Temperatures were unseasonably warm on March 4th, and little snow was present in the mountains (even the north face of Mt. San Antonio held only a couple of inches).  Bighorn sheep were located from the helicopter, on average, over 1,100 ft. higher in elevation than in past surveys -in fact, 25% of sheep groups were detected incidentally, outside of standardized winter-range survey polygons.  Unfortunately, because many bighorn sheep were on spring-summer range, (and not in the winter-range polygons surveyed annually) we were unable to obtain an accurate count.  Numbers would grossly underestimate the true population. 

    The good news, despite the failure to generate a numerical estimate, is that we were able to observe a recruitment rate of >0.5, meaning that more than 50% of last year’s lambs survived and will join the population as yearlings in April-May.  This comes from a small sample, but suggests an excellent recruitment rate, which, combined with very good survival among our sample of collared animals over the past year, means the population likely continued to grow from the 2011 estimate of 418 animals in the San Gabriel Range.  We’ll have to hope for a normal snow year next winter and wait for results of a 2013 survey in order to confirm this. 

Thanks again for your assistance in the count.  We will notify past participants around January 2013 of dates for next year’s survey.