Greenlee bighorns relocated to Flagstaff
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The idea of a roundup is nothing new in Greenlee County. Such an event is part of local history that dates back more than 100 years and continues today.
However, no one wore chaps, nor were there horses involved at the unique roundup in Stargo on Nov. 20. It was Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep that were being brought in. The herd has grown too big and needs occasional thinning, according to Arizona Game & Fish Department spokesman Bruce Sitko.
The captured sheep were immediately transported to West Clear Creek near Flagstaff, where bighorns have historically existed.
Game & Fish personnel bagged 16 of the sheep with tranquilizer guns. It was a day-long process as men climbed steep, rocky terrain to zero in on the animals and haul them in the beds of pickup trucks to a staging site at Stargo, a former residential area above Morenci.
Some of the sheep were taken right near the staging area. A ewe was caught just across the road. Local photographer Don Lunt, who witnessed the roundup, said it was the former site of his sister’s home. All that remains of once-thriving Stargo are a few small retaining walls. The Phelps Dodge Mercantile on the curve at the bottom of Stargo is now covered by a big pile of dirt.
The road that runs through Stargo was once known as U.S. Highway 666. It is now Highway 191.
The few remnants of Old Morenci can be seen from what is left of Stargo. Both were relocated to make way for expansion of the copper mine that once went by the name of Phelps Dodge. The company is now part of Freeport-McMoRan Gold & Copper Inc.
Several FMI personnel, including security chief Ed Commaduran, were at the roundup, mostly to evaluate safety as the roundup was conducted on FMI property.
The 16 sheep that were caught were loaded into a long trailer that had several compartments big enough to give the sheep adequate space but not large enough to allow them to move around much and injure themselves. Even so, two of the sheep died en route to Clear Creek. Sitko said the two did not appeared injured when they were examined by veterinarians at the staging site.
Sitko said the capture is stressful for the sheep despite the many precautions that are taken to ensure their health. The long trip to Flagstaff could be a factor. He said the two dead ewes would be examined to determine the cause of their deaths.
Game & Fish staff used tranquilizer darts fired from rifles to subdue the sheep. After each was caught, it was blindfolded and hauled in the back of a pickup truck to the staging area, where it was given a thorough medical examination. Many were given fluids intravenously for dehydration. Some were also given oxygen. A few that appeared overheated were doused with buckets of water.
Blood samples were taken from all 16 sheep to test for possible diseases or other problems not detected immediately by veterinarians who closely examined the sheep. All were injected with vitamins and antibiotics in the event they have parasites.
The roundup started around 7 a.m., about an hour after Game & Fish personnel were given a safety briefing by FMI security and safety staff. As G&F staff prepared their gear, six bighorns stood directly across the road in the graveled area of a former homesite.
Richard Langley of Game & Fish said the herd was being thinned for the sheeps’ own good. Estimates of the Clifton-Morenci herd’s population range from 100 to 146. There is a separate, smaller herd on Lower Eagle Creek that occasionally intermingles with the Clifton-Morenci bunch.
Langley said several sheep have been killed in recent months on the highway. One was reportedly killed the day before the roundup.
Part of the problem may be that the sheep have grown accustomed to being around an area inhabited by people and where motor vehicles are common. While they certainly are not tame enough to be hand-fed by humans, they are seen quite frequently in or near residential areas in Clifton and Morenci.
Lunt said they frequent the hillside in his back yard along Chase Creek in Clifton. He has taken many spectacular closeup photos of the sheep.
The first sheep taken by Game & Fish in the roundup was a small ram. Although the rocky outcrop on which he stood was only a few feet from the ground, the sheep tumbled and appeared to be seriously injured. Veterinarians and other Game & Fish staff attended to the sheep in a scene akin to watching a combat mobile medical unit in action. The ram survived the trip to Flagstaff.
The next two sheep taken were also rams. Langley radioed his colleagues to focus on catching ewes. He said, “No more rams. We already have three.”
Another colleague quipped, “OK, this isn’t a trophy hunt.” A third colleague, who was working on the injured small ram, chided, “If it was (a trophy hunt), it wouldn’t be this one.”
The effort marked the third consecutive year Game & Fish thinned out the Clifton-Morenci herd. Sitko was emphatic that none would be taken to the Blue Wilderness Area, where wolves were relocated by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Division. Sheep were taken to the Blue about five years ago, but many made their way back to Lower Eagle Creek or Morenci.
Critics of the action said Game & Fish was turning the bighorn sheep into “wolf food.” Sitko said there are no wolves at Clear Creek.
Rocky Mountain bighorns came to Clifton-Morenci in 1964. Sitko said a single ram was the first bighorn seen. It and others came down the San Francisco River from the Mogollon Mountains in New Mexico, where they were relocated from somewhere else in the early 1960s.
The herds have grown on Lower Eagle and Clifton-Morenci as they have no natural enemies able to prey on them, or at least not on the adults. It is also illegal to shoot bighorns without a special permit, and only a very few of those are ever available.
While the bighorns are seen around the Morenci open pit copper mine, they mostly stay in along mountainsides on the mine’s perimeter. Neither food nor water is available to them in the mine.
Sitko pointed to the difference between the Rocky Mountain bighorns and the desert bighorns. He said desert bighorns are smaller and are found in the southernmost deserts of the state, although some have been seen in the Peloncillo Mountains not far from Safford. He said interbreeding would not be good for the Rocky Mountain herds.
