South Chilcotin Mountains Region Overlap

The California Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis) is a sturdy ungulate who lives in grasslands and several shrub lands along the western flanks of the south-west interior of British Columbia and extends southwards of the east side of the Coast and Cascade ranges into Northern California. Those sheep are gregarious but live in sexually segregated groups and need a huge variety of range throughout the year such as pre-rut, rutting, mid-winter, later winter/spring and summer ranges. They usually spend winter on low-elevation bunchgrass ranges, ponderosa pine and douglas fir zones and in spring, they move at a higher elevation to graze plants in their most nutritious early growth stage. These complex spatial and temporal range use patterns have serious implications on their survival. A constant and precise monitoring of their population and behaviour is often necessary for the management of their habitat by the local and government institutions, the tourism business and industries.

Historical attempts at studying and monitoring the big horn sheep population of the Big Creek/Relay and Tyaughton areas has been met with many challenges, most notably the fact that this population’s range spans two provincial regions (Region 5/Cariboo and Region 3/Thompson), two provincial parks, and three management units (3-32, 5-3, and 5-4). Better monitoring of this population across these areas is required for proper management and conservation.

Issues:

• The range of this sheep population spans two provincial regions (3 and 5), two provincial parks, and three management units (3-32, 5-3, and 5-4), resulting in difficulties coordinating population monitoring.
• Lack of information regarding population dynamics such as mortality rates, sex ratios, growth rates and migration patterns
• Displacement from high value summer/fall habitat by increased recreational use of prime habitat areas

Goals:

• Coordinate regions 3 and 5
• Survey population numbers of rams, ewes and lambs to determine population dynamics
• Determine the magnitude of predator influence on mortality rates
• Raise local and tourist awareness of the benefits of population surveys and management
• Reduce human activities in prime habitat areas