Texas Conservationists Have Gone to Extremes to Save the Desert Bighorn Sheep. Now They’re Facing Their Biggest Obstacle Yet.

On a chilly December morning at Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area, some thirty miles south of the West Texas town of Alpine, a group of more than a hundred wildlife conservationists, researchers, and volunteers have gathered to capture the elusive bighorn sheep. A helicopter drones above the sheep’s high desert habitat before swooping down upon a herd of  five to ten animals. They start to run, splintering off in twos and threes. A man leans out from the helicopter and fires a net launcher at a ram that has long, curved horns. The bighorn tangles in the web and tumbles, sustaining gashes and scrapes on the rocky terrain. His eyesight goes dark as another man, known as a mugger, blindfolds him. The animal’s legs are…

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