Bighorn Sheep in Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park

Despite its pristine appearance, the Waterton-Glacier area harbors a fauna that has been greatly affected by human activities. Historical periods of trapping, mining, logging, agriculture and unregulated hunting resulted in the extirpation of some species, while greatly reducing numbers and distributions of others. Today, human population growth and tourism have led to accelerated rates of land development and increased recreational use in and near both parks, further affecting critical ungulate habitats and the populations dependent on them. Bighorn sheep are among those species that face serious risk of further decline. Bighorns occupy patchily distributed habitats, particularly during the critical winter period. Decades of fire suppression have decreased the size and increased the insularity of many of these habitat patches, while disease has caused recurrent catastrophic mortality, exacerbated by legal and illegal hunting. Such factors have combined to extirpate bighorn sheep from some important historical winter ranges in and adjacent to the parks, and are a continuing concern into the future. To provide park managers with a better understanding of bighorn populations, this study will document seasonal ranges and migration routes, evaluate patterns of habitat use and selection, and model bighorn-habitat relationships to predict occurrences of critical habitats and provide managers with rigorous decision-support tools to aid planning and impact assessment.

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