Scientists working with Navajo Nation tag nearly 100 bighorn sheep to diagnose disease, track movements
Some of the world's most sacred and spectacular lands unfold across the sovereign Navajo Nation—an area nearly the size of Maine encompassing parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. Here, desert bighorn sheep slip silently from view in rugged canyons and among red sandstone cliffs. Evocative petroglyphs and pictographs of the animal, which has been hunted and revered across time, adorn rocks throughout the area.
It is also here that a team of Navajo tribal authorities with veterinarians and scientists from Denver Zoo, Colorado State University and the Wildlife Conservation Society successfully captured and released 90 bighorn sheep in December 2020.
The team aims to diagnose respiratory disease in the bighorns and track the movement of rams and ewes as the first phase of a study led by Denver Zoo. CSU Professor Joel Berger, who is part of the project, explained that the disease contributes heavily to juvenile and adult mortality.
Berger said people involved in the project are cooperating for a common good and for a species of great local relevance to the Navajo people.
"That is something to be celebrated," he said.
Scientists working with Navajo Nation tag nearly 100 bighorn sheep to diagnose disease, track movements
Some of the world's most sacred and spectacular lands unfold across the sovereign Navajo Nation—an area nearly the size of Maine encompassing parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. Here, desert bighorn sheep slip silently from view in rugged canyons and among red sandstone cliffs. Evocative petroglyphs and pictographs of the animal, which has been hunted and revered across time, adorn rocks throughout the area.
It is also here that a team of Navajo tribal authorities with veterinarians and scientists from Denver Zoo, Colorado State University and the Wildlife Conservation Society successfully captured and released 90 bighorn sheep in December 2020.
The team aims to diagnose respiratory disease in the bighorns and track the movement of rams and ewes as the first phase of a study led by Denver Zoo. CSU Professor Joel Berger, who is part of the project, explained that the disease contributes heavily to juvenile and adult mortality.
Berger said people involved in the project are cooperating for a common good and for a species of great local relevance to the Navajo people.
"That is something to be celebrated," he said.
Scientists working with Navajo Nation tag nearly 100 bighorn sheep to diagnose disease, track movements