Fifty miles northeast of Las Vegas, helicopter blades cut through hot summer air, the sound echoing among sandstone cliffs in Valley of Fire State Park. Beneath a helicopter, sedated, blindfolded and secured in specialized transport bag, two desert bighorn sheep hang from a cable.
This is all part of a desert bighorn sheep capture and translocation project June 10 organized by the Nevada Department of Wildlife and Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. By capturing and relocating 139 sheep, they hope to reduce overexploitation of water and forage resources in the Muddy Mountains and leave the majority of the sheep population to remain comfortably…