By
Erin Coulehan
Photography by
Texas Parks and Wildlife
For the first time in more than half a century, wild desert bighorns roam the Franklin Mountains.
Their return is more than a symbolic homecoming – it’s also a battle for survival.
Once abundant across West Texas, desert bighorn sheep dominated the rugged mountain ranges of the region, their curled horns and sure-footed agility defining the untamed landscape.
The species is native to Texas and at one point thrived in numbers that exceeded 2,500, but the population declined as railroad construction and operations cut through the landscape and brought unintended devastation that included unregulated hunting and disease-carrying domestic livestock.
Despite early conservation efforts – including a 1903 hunting ban – bighorn numbers plummeted. By 1958, the last known desert bighorn was seen just north of Van Horn.
But the bighorn legacy did not end there.
After decades of conservation efforts and advocacy, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas Bighorn Society turned the tide by implementing a captive breeding program that slowly but steadily reintroduces the creatures to several mountain ranges across the state.
This past December, El Paso’s Franklin Mountains once again became home to desert bighorn sheep.
One-by-one, 77 bighorns leapt from transport trailers into the rugged West Texas wilderness, reclaiming a landscape their ancestors once roamed.
The reintroduction of the species is more than a homecoming – it’s a critical step in the fight to save the species.
By reintroducing herds to key habitats, conservationists rebuilt the population to an estimated 1,500 animals.
But history has a way of repeating itself.
This time, the threat doesn’t come from domestic livestock but from an exotic competitor – the aoudad, also known as Barbary sheep. These non-native hoofed mammals now roam nearly every Texas mountain range, carrying deadly pathogens like Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae (M. ovi), a bacteria capable of decimating bighorn populations through fatal pneumonia outbreaks.
With Texas’ last remaining healthy bighorn broodstock source located in the Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area, the stakes could not have been higher. The survival of desert bighorns in the state depends on protecting this critical population and expanding their range into safe, isolated habitats.
Enter Franklin Mountains State Park. Unlike other mountain ranges in Texas, the Franklins remain untouched by aoudad, offering a pristine refuge where desert bighorns can thrive without the looming threat of disease.
Recognizing this rare opportunity, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas State Parks Division joined forces to establish a new herd within the park’s rocky canyons. If successful, this initiative could create another self-sustaining population, reinforcing conservation efforts statewide.
The conservationists’ plan to establish a new bighorn population in the Franklins culminated in an adventurous journey for the bighorns.
Over the course of 36 hours, the animals had been pursued by helicopter, captured in nets, airlifted to scientists who tagged and tested them, then carefully transported 250 miles from Elephant Mountain to their new home in El Paso. It was a feat of modern conservation science, a testament to decades of dedication to ensuring that desert bighorns remain part of Texas’ wild legacy.
Beyond merely relocating the bighorns, the conservation effort represents something much greater: a fight to rewrite history.
Texas’ bighorn population faced the brink of extinction not too long ago but were able to return, against all odds. The Franklin Mountain Relocation marks another critical step to ensure that future generations are able to witness the magnificent creatures roaming our high desert peaks – not as relics of the past, but as hoofed symbols of hope, resilience, and renewal.
