September DC Lowres | Page 34

An elevated success story

North Dakota Bighorn Sheep Bighorn sheep have had a remarkable history in the state

by Doug Leier ND Game & Fish Dept.

W ithout fail, when I think about bighorn sheep in North Dakota, big game biologist Brett Weidmann pops into my head. For good reason. Brett is the Game and Fish Department’ s bighorn guru and has forgotten more about bighorn sheep than I’ ll ever know.

Brett is one of those guys I like to say is“ living and working,” actually doing what many young kids dream of. While he spends his share of time behind the screen and in the office, his work puts him into the old-fashioned role of a biologist. Monitoring, studying, researching and learning about one of North Dakota’ s smallest populations but highest interest species.

Here’ s what we do know about the 2025 status of bighorn sheep in North Dakota:

The latest numbers of North Dakota Game and Fish Department’ s 2024 bighorn sheep survey, completed by recounting lambs in March, revealed a minimum of 350 bighorn sheep in the grasslands of western North Dakota, down 4 percent from 2023 and 6 percent above the five-year average. Despite a slight decrease from the record count in 2023, the 2024 survey was still the second highest count on record.

Altogether, biologists counted 105 rams, 199 ewes and 46 lambs. Not included are approximately 40 bighorn sheep in the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and bighorns introduced to the Fort Berthold Indian

Reservation in 2020. Weidmann was pleased to see the population remained near record levels for the seventh consecutive year.

The northern badlands population declined by 4 percent from 2023 but was the second highest count on record. The southern badlands population increased slightly but remained near its lowest level since bighorns were reintroduced there in 1966.

“ We were encouraged to see adult

NDGF Ashley Peterson photos.

Page 34, Dakota Country, September 2025 www. dakotacountrymagazine. com