This week in Ms. Levy’s 5th-grade classroom was unlike any before it, and the students knew it from the moment they entered her classroom on Monday morning, when they saw the table filled with an assortment of items that appeared unfamiliar to them.  There was a skull, as that was obvious, but it was hard to determine what it was. The white bone of the skull was large, indicating that it belonged to a larger animal. However, the double-curved bones coming from the top of the skull gave it a somewhat devilish appearance. Other unique items were spread across the table, creating an aura of excitement among the students as they continued to their seats.

Sheep hunts are never ordinary. Whether you’ve scaled scree fields in search of a Dall’s ram or glassed the rugged canyons of the Southwest for desert sheep, these experiences rise to the level of a lifetime memory worthy of lasting images that take you back to a special time and place. A well-composed field photo does more than document your success––it honors the animal, where he lived, the effort it took to get there and those who made the journey with you.

Here are 12 guide-approved tips for taking respectful and memorable photos of your trophy of a lifetime. 

Within our purpose “To Put and Keep Wild Sheep on the Mountain” is the importance of maintaining a balanced age structure of individual populations. An indicator of this balance is mature rams on the landscape. The presence of and the selective harvest of mature male animals is a conservation action that has benefited wild sheep for over a century and continues to this day. We cannot overlook the significance of this fact. 

In the arid expanse of Arizona's Harcuvar Mountains, hunter-conservationists have partnered to expand the range's capacity for desert bighorn sheep. Spearheaded by the Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society (ADBSS) and fueled by a $40,394 Grant-In-Aid from the Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF), the Rinehart-Newlon Water Catchment project stands as a powerful example of what partnerships and passionate volunteers can accomplish.

As noted in our inaugural FY 2022-23 Conservation Impact Summary last year, WSF revised our Grant-In-Aid (GIA) process in the spring of 2022 to focus on larger, bolder, more impactful, and multi-year legacy projects with nearly all of them coming to WSF through our chapter and affiliate network. This action transformed our GIA program, and our Board of Directors recently renewed this focus for our current fiscal year. We are very pleased to report a second year of record results and record funding toward our conservation, education, and advocacy mission in this expanded FY 2023-24 Conservation Impact Summary.