. Biennial report of the Montana Fish and Game Commission. Montana Fish and Game Commission; Game protection; Wildlife conservation; Fisheries. The picture has been different with the moun- tain sheep. They were at one time abundant over a large per cent of the mountainous portion of the state and also out along the breaks of the Mis- souri and its tributaries. Due to excessive hunting, the bands were greatly depleted in the early 1900's. The majority of the remainder have dwind- led during the intervening years until now they are represented by only a scattering of small isolated bands. The t
. Biennial report of the Montana Fish and Game Commission. Montana Fish and Game Commission; Game protection; Wildlife conservation; Fisheries. The picture has been different with the moun- tain sheep. They were at one time abundant over a large per cent of the mountainous portion of the state and also out along the breaks of the Mis- souri and its tributaries. Due to excessive hunting, the bands were greatly depleted in the early 1900's. The majority of the remainder have dwind- led during the intervening years until now they are represented by only a scattering of small isolated bands. The transplanting of mountain sheep into ranges where they were once abundant is a logi- cal step toward the ultimate reestablishment of this species. This program also calls for the inter- change of several rams. It is hoped in this way to introduce new blood among these small isolated bands and thus to determine whether inbreeding may be a factor in holding down the mountain sheep population. Procedure: In trapping both mountain goats and moun- tain sheep, a woven wire pen was used. This was forty-five feet long, twenty-five feet wide, and eleven feet high. The pen was baited with common stock salt. A gate was used which could be tripped 300 yards away from the trap. The capturing pen for mountain goats was located in the main Rocky Mountain range west of Choteau. The first attempt to trap and trans- plant was made in April, 1940. The Fish and Game Department was reimbursed for half the expense of this project by the Big Timber Rod and Gun Club. Ten goats were captured and transplanted to the Sweetgrass Canyon of the Crazy Mountains in Sweetgrass county. There is no record of goats having previously inhab- ited this rather isolated range; the topography and vegetative composition, however, appear ideal for this species. Two additional yearling billies were moved to the small herd in the Benchmark area. MOUNTAIN GOATS PLANTED IN THE CRAZY MOUNTAIN AREA Tag- Date No. Planted Sex Age
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Keywords: ., bookauthormontanafishandg, bookcentury1900, booksubjectfisheries
