Sheep Show® 2025: An Uplifting Sense of Urgency

By Chester Moore
 
As wild sheep go, so does wildlife across the West.

Both bighorn and thinhorn sheep serve as the proverbial canaries in the coal mine of big game. Their presence in rugged, remote landscapes captivates us, yet it is this very remoteness that intensifies the challenges of habitat alteration, predation, and disease.

That's why an uplifting sense of urgency filled the halls of the 2025 Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF) Sheep Show in Reno, NV.
 
As time passes, pressure on wild sheep only rise with a growing human footprint across their range, changes in regional wildlife politics, and increasing research and management costs. And that is why the WSF family is so dedicated and focused on its purpose of putting and keeping wild sheep on the mountain™.
 
They understand these challenges and not only have the will to take them on but also a heart that beats for the conservation of wild things and wild places. This passion, driven by love and respect for these magnificent creatures and the hunting lifestyle, fuels their relentless efforts to overcome every obstacle.
 
It's evident in the biologists and wildlife managers who gathered during Sheep Week to strategize on moving forward with conservation efforts in their respective jurisdictions.
 
It manifests in tribal leaders' seeking to restore and manage animals that are culturally significant to their heritage and ancestral lands. It's evident in a conservation permit auction with a record bid of $1.3 million for a New Mexico bighorn sheep tag. That, along with dozens of other incredible tag buys, set a new conservation funding standard and sent a message that the WSF family is dead serious about funding sheep conservation when the status quo in some areas is concerning. And it's not just about sheep, but also those who care about them.
 
It's an outfitter who tragically lost his beloved wife and who has trusted WSF and its Women Hunt® program to be the stewards of an outreach that will keep her beautiful legacy alive for generations to come.
 
It's the elder members of the family whose spouses have passed, visiting their Last Sheep Camp, yet they still continue to come to the Sheep Show and engage in the critical mission at hand.
 
It's the nearly 3,000 children that were part of the Youth Conservation Wildlife Experience at the show, many of whom learned about wild sheep for the very first time. And it's the volunteers from WSF, the National Bighorn Sheep Center, and other groups giving them their undivided attention for three days.
 
It's generation to generation. It's the seeds planted today that will grow into tomorrow's champions for wild sheep.
 
President Teddy Roosevelt said, "The wildlife and its habitat cannot speak, so we must and we will."

This is best summed up in actions with the December 2024 restoration of desert bighorn sheep to the Franklin Mountains in El Paso, TX. With a massive hit by disease spread by non-indigenous aoudad that have risen in numbers 50-fold more than bighorns in the Texas Trans Pecos, things were looking bleak. However, WSF and the Texas Bighorn Society led a coalition to aid the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department in a monumental capture of 77 healthy desert bighorns at Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area.

When the trailer door opened and a big, mature ram stepped out, it was the first of its kind to set foot in those mountains in more than 100 years.
A huge crowd of diverse interests gathered to watch this release and cheered on the sheep ascending into their new environment. There were 32 pregnant ewes among them, and by this spring, there will likely be more than 100 desert bighorns in the Franklin Mountains that now serve as a sanctuary herd for Texas in a domestic flock and aoudad-free area.
 
This serves as a reminder that what WSF, its chapters, affiliates, and partners do make a difference. As president and CEO, Gray N. Thornton, sounded a call to evangelize for wild sheep, events like this make it easy.
 
Evangelism can be defined as the enthusiastic advocacy or promotion of a cause, belief, or idea. This advocacy becomes particularly compelling when it is supported not only by tangible results but in this case the profound, poetic sense of renewal that comes with wins for wild sheep.
 
That happened in the Franklin Mountains, and it echoed throughout the halls of the Sheep Show, where people were empowered to spread a positive, important conservation message.
 
This message reflects a dedicated core of hunter-conservationists who will settle for nothing less than putting and keeping more wild sheep on the mountains in 2025 and beyond.