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When Success Meets Mega-Drought

The Latest Feature Articles When Success Meets Mega-Drought
When Success Meets Mega-Drought

Managing Desert Bighorns in Nevada’s Muddy Mountains

By Chester Moore

WSF Chapter & Affiliate Partners: Fraternity of the Desert Bighorn, Nevada Bighorns Unlimited – Reno, Fallon, Elko Bighorns Unlimited, and Utah WSF

Published in Conservation Impact Fiscal Year 2025-2026 

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Desert bighorn sheep were built for extreme conditions. But even animals uniquely adapted to the desert have limits, and several years of serious drought in southern Nevada have tightened those limits in the Muddy Mountains. The problem was not drought alone, nor was it simply too many sheep. It was the combination.

A band of desert bighorns on the dry southern Nevada landscape

Above: A band of desert bighorns on the dry southern Nevada landscape. As noted by WSF President and CEO Gray N. Thornton, “Bringing water to this population to tide them over isn’t enough. Forage to support them is next to none.” Photo courtesy of L. Victor Clark.

By early 2025, the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) was already responding aggressively to desperate conditions across southern Nevada. Some mountain ranges had gone more than 200 days without measurable precipitation. Water developments were critically low, while months without meaningful precipitation limited green-up and reduced forage quality.

NDOW responded with emergency water hauls, close monitoring of wildlife water developments, and bighorn translocations designed to reduce pressure on drought-stressed ranges. Those efforts continued into 2026 as biologists adapted management to changing water, forage, and population conditions.

The drought created a situation in which water and forage problems compounded one another. NDOW reported that as vegetation became increasingly dry, sheep were consuming less-desirable plant material that required additional free water for digestion. Bighorns were arriving at water developments earlier in the year and staying later, accelerating the drawdown of already-limited supplies.

Officials can haul water into the mountains, but growing forage was another matter. That distinction was at the heart of Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF) President and CEO Gray N. Thornton’s assessment of the situation.

“Bringing water to this population to tide them over isn’t enough,” Thornton said. “Forage to support them is next to none.”

WSF responded with a $100,000 commitment to emergency water hauling and desert bighorn translocation, helping NDOW address a situation involving water, forage and the number of animals the drought-stressed landscape could support.

emergency water hauls brought water to Nevada

In 2026, emergency water hauls brought much needed resources to guzzlers that were low due to the extended drought.

Decades of conservation work had helped create a remarkably productive bighorn population in the Muddies. Lamb recruitment remained strong, and the herd grew. Then prolonged drought reduced water availability and diminished the quantity and quality of forage, while managers were dealing with a population pressing the limits of what the range could comfortably support under those conditions.

Clint Bentley, a WSF board member and past president of the Fraternity of the Desert Bighorn, said southern Nevada has been through a serious drought cycle for roughly four years. At its worst, new vegetative growth was scarce and pressure on the range intensified.

Froylan Hernandez, Southern Region Game Division supervisor for NDOW, said the Muddy Mountains population had been near capacity for several years. Drought added another layer of pressure involving water, forage quality and the amount of food available on the landscape.

“All those things combined, they were just too many for the Muddies to support,” Hernandez said.

The numbers put that challenge into perspective. NDOW considers the Muddy and neighboring Black Mountains essentially one bighorn metapopulation, and Hernandez estimated the two ranges were supporting about 700 sheep. Managers would like to reduce that number to roughly 600 animals. In the Muddy Mountains specifically, Hernandez said the objective is to keep the population at 400 or fewer sheep.

Those numbers do not mean the Muddy Mountains suddenly became poor bighorn habitat. In fact, their ability to produce sheep is crucial to this story. What the range can support during favorable conditions is not necessarily what it can comfortably carry through an extended dry cycle.

Lamb recruitment remains strong in southern Nevada

Lamb recruitment remains strong in southern Nevada. The combination of drought and increasing populations results in a unique management situation for wildlife professionals. Photo courtesy Victor Trujillo
Building a Bighorn Stronghold

The Muddy Mountains rise northeast of Las Vegas in classic desert bighorn country. Bentley described a rugged landscape ranging from roughly 2,500 feet to 5,500 feet or more around Muddy Peak, with much of the capture area closer to 3,500 feet. The country is more vertical than rolling, with steep faces and desert vegetation including catclaw, greasewood, and scattered forbs and shrubs.

Water has always been one of the defining factors for desert bighorns in southern Nevada. Over several decades, wildlife water developments provided dependable water in an area where natural sources can be limited or seasonal. In the Muddy Mountains, those projects became an important part of a remarkable conservation success.

Bentley said water developments expanded through the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, helping transform the Muddies into what he called an “awesome area for sheep.” He remembers only three bighorn tags there in 1984. Today, the population numbers in the hundreds.

The recent challenge has come from conditions beyond the reach of even successful water management. Years of unusually severe drought reduced natural precipitation across the landscape and, with it, the green-up and forage needed to support a large bighorn population. Wildlife water developments remained critically important, and emergency water hauling could supplement them when necessary, but neither could replace the rainfall needed to produce forage across the range.

As the drought continued, NDOW confronted the challenge of maintaining critical water supplies while also keeping sheep numbers in balance with what the drought-stressed habitat could support.

Guzzler installation in Nevada 2025

In March 2026, a new guzzler was installed in southern Nevada with a unique GoHunt fundraiser in a collaborative effort involving nonprofit groups, agency personnel, private partners, and volunteers.
READ THE FULL STORY
Water, Forage and Drought

Wildlife water developments continue as a critical management tool in southern Nevada, and during extreme drought, even those systems sometimes need help. In December 2024, NDOW conducted emergency water hauls that partially filled 10 developments. By January 2025, another 23 water developments within high-density sheep areas had been identified as alarmingly low.

At the same time, the Muddy Mountains herd remained highly productive. Bentley said lamb recruitment has remained in the high 40s and low 50s per 100 ewes, evidence of a population that continued to produce sheep even as drought put increasing pressure on the habitat.

NDOW responded on both fronts. Emergency water hauling helped meet immediate water needs, while translocation and carefully managed harvest gave biologists tools to bring sheep numbers into better balance with current range conditions. Moving healthy animals also created an opportunity to strengthen bighorn populations elsewhere.

The Work Continues

The 2026 operation continued translocation work conducted the previous year. Hernandez said sheep were captured from the Muddies in June 2025, and strong lamb recruitment and continued population growth led managers to remove additional animals in 2026.

On June 28-29, NDOW captured 39 desert bighorns (32 ewes, five rams and two lambs) from the Muddy Mountains. The sheep were moved north to China Mountain to augment an existing Nevada bighorn population.

The move reduced pressure on the source herd while putting healthy sheep into country where they could strengthen another population. It also provided an opportunity for health assessments and disease evaluation.

The China Mountain move was an augmentation rather than the establishment of an entirely new herd. Bentley said the population there had experienced a disease problem years earlier and declined to very low numbers. Subsequent sampling did not detect disease, allowing managers to help rebuild it.

“That will be a good recovered herd,” Bentley said. The situation turns a management difficulty into a wider conservation opportunity. Healthy animals from a productive source herd can contribute to rebuilding populations and adding genetic diversity elsewhere. “It definitely is a positive, a true positive,” Bentley said.

There is a lot to be positive about. Sheep from a thriving source population are helping strengthen another herd while reducing pressure on drought-stressed habitat back in the Muddies. The effort turned an urgent management need into an expanded conservation opportunity.

Managing Sheep on Both Ends

Late June in southern Nevada might seem like an unusual time to capture bighorns with helicopters. Still, Bentley said operations begin at daylight and continue only while temperatures remain within predetermined safety parameters. Summer relocation also gives sheep moved from southern Nevada to higher elevations time to acclimate before winter.

“They have the entire summer to readjust to that climate,” Bentley said.

Translocation is only one part of the Muddy Mountains management equation. The herd remains highly productive, and NDOW is also using harvest to help manage population numbers.

Ewe harvest is especially important because it directly affects future population growth. Hernandez acknowledged that ewe hunts can generate opposition, which is understandable in a conservation culture built around restoring and increasing wild sheep. But when population numbers move beyond what habitat can comfortably sustain under current conditions, maintaining the largest possible herd does not necessarily benefit either the range or the sheep.

Hernandez said ewe hunts had already helped reduce numbers and would continue as managers worked to keep the population below capacity and leave room for future growth.

The scale of the current harvest reflects the unusual management situation in the Muddies. Today, NDOW can offer dozens of desert bighorn tags in Unit 268, including ewe tags used specifically as a population-management tool. That level of hunting opportunity also speaks to the conservation success behind the current challenge.

The objective is not simply to produce the greatest number of sheep possible, but to maintain a healthy, productive herd in balance with what the range can support.

Translocation map from Muddy Mountains north to the China Mountain in Nevada

The June 2025 translocation moved nearly 40 desert bighorns from the Muddy Mountains north to the China Mountain area. Moves like this help rebuild populations and add genetic diversity.
Helicopter moving sheep in Nevada 

Sheep photo taken in a guzzler in Nevada

Sheep drinking water at a guzzler in Nevada

Guzzlers are critical on a desert landscape, providing wild sheep and other wildlife with much needed water.

Watching Water From Afar

Technology is also changing the way NDOW and its partners monitor desert bighorn water. Bentley said the Fraternity of the Desert Bighorn applied for WSF Grant-in-Aid assistance for an additional 40 RanchBot monitoring systems, most of which had already been deployed at the time of this writing.

Bentley called the technology a “game changer.” Historically, checking remote guzzlers required people to physically travel into difficult terrain . Remote monitoring now allows managers to identify changing water levels before a developing problem becomes an emergency.

“NDOW in particular is already knowing where we’re looking at real potential problems, not after they’ve actually become a real problem,” Bentley said.

That allows water hauls and repairs to be planned before conditions become critical.

“The cost efficiency, everything is just so much better if you can pre-plan it instead of working under an emergency,” he said.
The technology does not replace people working on the ground. It gives those people better information about where they are needed, particularly in a desert where rainfall can be extremely localized.

sheep in a trailer being transported

Waiting on Rain

For all the management tools available to NDOW and its conservation partners, the ultimate relief for the Muddy Mountains has to come from the sky.

Some of that relief has arrived. Bentley said unusual moisture during May and June 2025 produced green-up and improved conditions compared with what sheep had gone through during the previous year. After years of drought, seeing fresh vegetation on the landscape was encouraging. But Bentley cautioned against interpreting a few periods of moisture as the end of the drought cycle.

Hernandez offered a similar assessment. Monsoonal rains had reached portions of southern Nevada, but desert rainfall can be remarkably localized. One range, or even one part of a range, can receive meaningful rain while nearby areas get little. The moisture had helped in places, but Hernandez said it had not been enough to refill water developments or return conditions to where managers would like to see them.

That uncertainty is part of managing desert bighorns. A productive herd can encounter dramatically different conditions from one year to the next, and managers have to respond to what is happening on the ground.

The response by NDOW and its conservation partners demonstrates the value of having multiple management tools available when environmental conditions change rapidly. Decisions can be based on what biologists are seeing in the herd and on the landscape, whether that means responding to an immediate water shortage or taking longer-term steps to keep the population in balance with available habitat.

Technology is giving managers better information, and conservation partnerships are providing additional resources when extraordinary conditions call for them. None of those tools replaces rainfall, but together they give wildlife professionals options that previous generations of sheep managers simply did not have.

That may be the larger lesson of the Muddy Mountains.

This is not a story of conservation failing. It is a story of conservation work succeeding well enough to create a large, productive desert bighorn population and then being tested by environmental conditions outside anyone’s control.

Protecting the Muddy Mountains legacy means continuing that work as conditions change. The sheep have proven remarkably resilient, as have the people committed to conserving them. They can manage populations, move sheep, maintain water, and use technology to anticipate problems, but some things remain beyond their control.

So in the desert, everyone still watches the sky.

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