Pet desert tortoises need homes

There's no place to take unwanted desert tortoises, a reptile that is endangered in the wild. Yet desert tortoises can’t simply be put in the desert because of the dangers of overburdening the already fragile desert balance with more animals than the system can support.

Staff Reports
The Record-Courier

It’s been a busy summer so far for Tortoise Group, the Las Vegas nonprofit group that handles pet desert tortoise adoptions in Nevada.

In spite of having adopted over a dozen tortoises so far in 2014, there are still scores of tortoises looking for new custodians. And with no place to take unwanted desert tortoises now, and the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center about to close at the end of the year, finding new custodians for the reptile that is endangered in the wild is a constant problem.

“Although some tortoises lose their homes due to foreclosure or death of their custodians, the major problem is backyard breeding,” Jim Cornall, Executive Director of Tortoise Group said.

“Pet tortoises can’t simply be put in the desert, because of the dangers of introducing disease into the wild population, or overburdening the already fragile desert balance with more animals than the system can support. We have to find homes for them.”

Tortoise Group is planning to hold two workshops in July in Gardnerville and Reno – and will be bringing desert tortoises along for those that chose to adopt, and have prepared their backyards, as a result of the first trip.

The US Fish & Wildlife Service is assisting with funding for the efforts.

Over 150 people attended the two initial workshops, which were the beginning of Tortoise Group setting up a chapter in the capital region. The sessions led to new volunteers being recruited, and to several adoptions. Over a dozen adoptions have already taken place from tortoises already in the area, and around a dozen more tortoises will be going to their new homes in July.

Tortoises will be heading up to Reno on July 23, with assistance from the Nevada Department of Wildlife, with adoptions taking place the following two days. The first workshop is 3:30-5:30 p.m. July 26 at the Humane Society, 2825 Longley Lane, in Reno. The second workshop is 1-3 p.m. July 27 at the Cooperative Extension building, 1329 Waterloo Lane in Gardnerville.

“We were delighted by the response to the initial workshops,” Cornall said. “The people we spoke with and visited were so full of enthusiasm, and eager to be involved. We wanted to bring tortoises as soon as sufficient yards were prepared, and we also wanted to hold new meetings, both for the new members, and for anyone else who couldn't make those first workshops but might be interested in learning more about adopting a pet desert tortoise.”

For more information on desert tortoise adoptions, or the workshops, call (702) 739-7113 or email info@tortoisegroup.org

Pneumonia outbreak now called ‘worst case scenario’ for bighorn sheep

Bighorn Sheep are shown on the trail to Icebox Canyon in Red Rock Conservation Area. In what wildlife biologists are calling “a worst-case scenario,” bighorn sheep in four Southern Nevada mountain ranges have now tested positive for bacteria that causes deadly pneumonia, including one herd infected with two different strains. (Anton/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

By HENRY BREAN
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

In what wildlife biologists are calling “a worst-case scenario,” bighorn sheep in four Southern Nevada mountain ranges have now tested positive for bacteria that causes deadly pneumonia, including one herd infected with two different strains.

Nevada Department of Wildlife officials announced Wednesday that a bacterial pneumonia outbreak first discovered in the River Mountains between Henderson and Boulder City in August appears to have spread to sheep in the Eldorado, McCullough and Spring Mountains.

The herd in the Spring Mountains also has tested positive for a second strain of bacteria that may have spread north from an outbreak that swept through Mojave National Preserve in California.

Bighorn have no natural resistance to pneumonia and tend to die at a high rate. Those that survive become carriers, infecting and eventually killing newborn lambs in a cycle that can diminish a herd for up to a decade, if not kill it off altogether.

The widening outbreak also seriously complicates efforts to restore bighorn to its historic ranges throughout Nevada and the West, since many of the animals being relocated come from Southern Nevada.

“This is a worst case scenario,” wildlife biologist Pat Cummings said in a written statement. “Given the geography between the Spring Mountains and the outbreak area in California, we were concerned this might be possible, especially with the ability of bighorn rams to cover vast amounts of territory in their wanderings. There is no way to limit these animals’ movements.”

There also is no way to treat sick animals or vaccinate healthy ones against the illness, which does not pose a risk to humans.

“We’re almost at the mercy of Mother Nature,” said department of wildlife spokesman Doug Nielsen.

When the outbreak in California was discovered last spring, wildlife managers briefly considered — then decided against — the wholesale slaughter of bighorn sheep to stop the disease from spreading across the entire 1.6 million acre preserve and beyond.

Since then, more diseased bighorns were found in the preserve’s Marble range.

Wildlife officials don’t know for sure how many sheep have died of pneumonia or how many more will die, but population numbers appear to be down in the affected areas on both sides of the border, said Peregrine Wolff, the state wildlife veterinarian for Nevada.

The bacteria that causes pneumonia can linger in bighorn sheep herds and continue to kill off lambs “for years and years and years,” Wolff said. “Our concern is will these numbers ever recover or will they just continue to be depressed?”

Wildlife officials also worry the outbreak could jump to other herds, including one in the Muddy Mountains near Moapa Valley that ranks as the largest herd in Southern Nevada.

Wolff said “nothing really” can be done to stop it. Trying to kill sick animals or eliminate an infected herd to halt the spread of bacteria is “far from an exact science,” she said.

“We’re not going to go in and lay down every sheep. We’re not going to nuke them.”

Instead, wildlife officials are asking the public’s help to chart the course of the outbreak. Anyone who spots sick or dead bighorn sheep is asked to record it, preferably with a picture and GPS coordinates.

Reports can be made by calling the department of wildlife’s Las Vegas office at 702-486-5127 or sending an email to pcummings@ndow.org.

Wolff suspects the outbreak in Southern Nevada has been underway since 2012.

The latest discovery of infected animals came about through testing conducted by the Southern Nevada Bighorn Sheep Disease Investigation Project, a partnership involving the Department of Wildlife and two conservation and hunting organizations, the Fraternity of the Desert Bighorn and the Wild Sheep Foundation.

In November, the partnership collected samples from a total of 33 bighorn, 10 each in the Eldorado and McCullough ranges and 13 in the Spring Mountains. In all but two cases, the sheep were tested and released unharmed.

Since September, wildlife officials have caught, killed and dissected one sick lamb from the Eldorado Mountains and one sick lamb from the River Mountains, both of which showed signs of pneumonia.

Bighorn sheep once roamed nearly every mountain range in Nevada, but unregulated hunting, habitat loss and disease spread by domestic livestock reduced the population to about 1,200 animals in a handful of areas, none of them north of Ely or west of Hawthorne.

Since 1967, wildlife officials have restored Nevada’s official animal to more than 60 mountain ranges and helped boost their total population to more than 11,000 adults, more than any other state. The River Mountains herd played a key role in the recovery, supplying more than a quarter of the nearly 2,900 sheep captured and relocated over the past 45 years. “That was our jewel,” Nielsen said.

Not anymore. Officials have put a stop to the relocation of bighorns from any herd showing signs of the bacteria. Wolff said the infected herds could be off limits for years, if not forever.

Bighorn sheep numbers way down

These bighorn sheep were photographed in 2009 on Old Dad Mountain, the same area of the eastern Mojave Desert where a deadly disease has spread among at least two herds. Biologists have started an effort to monitor the health of the elusive animals.

BY JANET ZIMMERMAN
Press Enterprise

Only a fraction of the bighorn sheep typically seen in a Mojave Desert mountain range was spotted during a recent helicopter survey, a sign that a deadly pneumonia outbreak has taken a significant toll on the population, a scientist said Tuesday, Nov. 12.

Crews found no obviously sick animals in many of the other mountain ranges the sheep inhabit in the eastern Mojave. Blood test results will show whether those sheep are carrying the bacteria that causes the disease.

In the hardest-hit area, around Old Dad Mountain and Kelso Peak 15 miles southeast of Baker, the helicopter crew saw 6.4 sheep per hour. Data from the past 18 years show the previous lowest encounter rate there was 8.2 sheep per hour and the average is 14.5, said Deborah Hughson, science adviser for the Mojave National Preserve.

Two animals were accidentally killed during the four-day survey last week, Hughson said.

One ewe, after collaring, became startled and jumped a short distance off a hillside, Hughson said. Her leg broke on landing, and she had to be euthanized.

The second sheep died when a capture net was discharged from the helicopter in windy conditions. The net caught the sheep’s horn and spun her abruptly around; a veterinarian who conducted a field autopsy determined the animal died instantly. It did not have pneumonia.

During the survey, 73 bighorn were fitted with locator collars that will help experts track them — and the disease — for the next four to six years.

In addition to the herd around Old Dad Mountain, which has a population of 200 to 300, the outbreak has affected a second group in the Marble Mountains, 35 miles south.

Hughson said she was surprised that there were no sick sheep beyond a few in the Marble Mountains. Crews also surveyed the Bristol, Clipper, Soda, Providence, Granite, Hackberry and Woods ranges.

“We now are pretty clear the disease is centered in the Old Dad Peak area. There has been a substantial population decline that could be as much as half of the population,” Hughson said.
In that area, crews saw four carcasses and no lambs, she said.

The disease, which can have an incubation period of months, is easily transmitted to bighorn that come in contact with domestic goats and sheep. Authorities do not know how the Mojave herds contracted it, she said.

Healthy looking sheep can carry the bacteria, then suddenly show symptoms and die soon after, Hughson said.

Scientists should have the results of blood and fecal samples and nasal swabs taken in the field by early December, and will know then which animals are infected, Hughson said.

The results will help determine the next step in dealing with the outbreak. Experts may cull sick animals from the herd to stop the disease from spreading or manipulate water sources next summer to keep the infected sheep from interacting with other herds, Hughson said.

The federal and state governments have spent more than $100,000 on the helicopter survey, collars and database, she said. The survey of more than 80,000 acres was a joint operation of the National Park Service, Mojave National Preserve and California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Trucked sheep may have caused bighorn deaths

Domestic sheep trucked through the Mojave may have caused a devastating bighorn pneumonia wave

More than 100 bighorn sheep in and around the Mojave National Preserve have died from pneumonia since May. Wildlife officials say the epidemic wiped out half the herd, once considered one of the state's healthiest. (FILE PHOTO/THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE)

By JANET ZIMMERMAN, STAFF WRITER
Press-Enterprise

A pneumonia epidemic that has killed more than 100 bighorn sheep in the Mojave National Preserve this summer and is decimating another herd may have come from sick animals illegally dumped off a truck en route to alfalfa fields in the Imperial Valley, federal land managers said Tuesday, Sept. 3.

Scientists are investigating two areas plagued by disease. The first, at Old Dad Mountain, is 15 miles southeast of Baker. Wildlife experts estimate that half of the 200- to 300-sheep herd has died there and at nearby Kelso Peak since mid-May.

Last month, several sick bighorn sheep were found 35 miles to the south in the Marble Mountains, which are just south of Interstate 40 and east of Kelbaker Road. Tests showed they suffered the same strain of pneumonia found in bighorn at Old Dad Mountain and Kelso Peak.

“They’re seeing a lot of sick sheep, so they’re expecting a lot of sheep to die in the next couple weeks in the Marble Mountains. It happened pretty quick at Old Dad, within a month,” said Linda Slater, spokeswoman for the 1.6 million-acre preserve.

The majestic bighorn, icons of the American West, are highly susceptible to pneumonia carried by domestic sheep and goats. Bighorn have no immunity to the disease, which is almost always fatal.

At first, wildlife experts feared the pneumonia was transmitted between the herds and would quickly spread. But a recent discovery may be a clue to the source of the outbreak and its transmission, she said.

Click to view larger map

On Aug. 13, four domestic sheep carcasses and domestic sheep pellets were found at Halloran Summit, about 15 miles northeast of Baker on Interstate 15, she said. That is 20 miles away from the center of the outbreak at Old Dad Mountain, home to what had been considered one of the state’s healthiest herds.

On Aug. 24, scientists also found pellets at Foshay Pass, 15 miles northeast of Interstate 40 and Kelbaker Road. They are waiting for test results to determine whether the droppings came from domestic sheep, Slater said.

Trucks regularly transport domestic sheep through the Mojave on their way from Montana to Imperial Valley and around the Salton Sea for grazing, Slater said.

“The scientists are speculating that perhaps a truckload had some sick sheep on it. Maybe (the driver) had to unload some sheep to get some dead animals off the truck” and that’s how pellets got on the ground, she said.

The case is still under investigation and law enforcement is not involved, she said.

Early on, biologists thought that a feral angora goat shot by a hunter last fall at Marl Spring, 12 miles east of Old Dad Mountain, may have been the source of the outbreak. Though the animal tested negative for pneumonia, it still could have been a carrier, Slater said.

Later this month, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is expected to conduct a count by helicopter. The numbers of bighorn will be compared to population figures from the last survey, in 2008.

In October, state and federal officials plan to capture healthy animals in the surrounding mountains and outfit them with GPS collars so they will know immediately if they go down. At the same time, they will be able to collect blood samples and nasal swabs to see if the infection has spread.

There is no vaccine or cure for pneumonia in bighorn sheep. The disease does not spread to humans.

Some of the dead animals were taken for testing to the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory in San Bernardino, which is operated by the UC Davis veterinary school. Some carcasses were too decomposed for testing and were left in the field, state officials said.

Before the outbreak, there were an estimated 425 to 750 bighorn in the five groups in the Mojave: Old Dad Mountain, Clark Mountain, Piute Mountain, Woods-Hackberry Mountains and Providence-Granite Mountains.

State officials have yet to decide whether to proceed with this year’s bighorn hunting within the preserve, which starts Dec. 1. The Mojave is one of the few places in California where bighorn sheep hunting is permitted.

In October, the Fish and Game Commission will consider what to do about the upcoming hunting season. The state issues tags by lottery, based on the number of rams in a herd; three were issued this year for the Old Dad Mountain and Kelso Peak area.

Bighorn sheep testing shows sick animals without disease

Two bighorn sheep ewes and their lambs are photographed during a survey conducted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Both state and national wildlife agencies were investigating a disease outbreak within the Mojave National Preserve.

BROOKE SELF, STAFF WRITER
Desert Dispatch

BAKER • Preliminary survey results by wildlife agencies in the Mojave National Preserve show that a few sick desert bighorn sheep have tested negative for pneumonia, according to an official of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

More than 20 sheep in a herd of about 200 bighorns have died. One of those animals was confirmed by laboratory tests to have pneumonia, coordinator Regina Abella said on Friday.

Pneumonia can pass to bighorn from domestic sheep and goats. It is believed an angora goat found 12 miles east of Old Dad Mountain near Baker may have been the culprit for the outbreak, according to a news release from the National Park Service.

Desert bighorn have no natural defenses to diseases carried by domestic animals and the mortality rate for infected animals is 50 to 90 percent.

In California, all bighorn sheep are fully protected under the Department of Fish and Wildlife code which is a classification made to animals that are rare or face possible extinction, according to Abella. However, the desert area has historically held a very healthy and robust population of the breed, she said. In fact the desert bighorn were recently used to help populate other herds in nearby states, she said.

One concern of the wildlife agencies is that the summer marks the beginning of rut, or mating season, which could potentially influence long-distance movement by the older male bighorns. Jeff Villepique of the National Park Service said that officials were nervous about the desert herd potentially carrying the disease to nearby Nevada bighorns.

Two weeks ago officials also did a three-day helicopter survey of Old Dad Mountain and other nearby herds, according to the Mojave National Preserve website. Scientists hoped to asses the current distribution and status of the disease. After the survey on July 19, scientists were still compiling and interpreting the data but noted significantly fewer desert bighorn were observed on Old Dad Mountain compared with previous surveys, according to the report.

Nearby herds appeared to be healthy and in good condition.

Diseased bighorn sheep might have to be killed in Mojave National Preserve

Desert bighorn sheep gather at night on June 6 at a guzzler set up to provide water for the herd. A virus that is killing sheep in the largest herd at the Mojave National Preserve is described as "a grim situation" by spokeswoman Linda Slater.

By HENRY BREAN
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Wildlife officials in California might resort to killing desert bighorn sheep in an effort to contain an outbreak of a deadly disease now spreading through the largest herd in Mojave National Preserve, 100 miles southwest of Las Vegas.

At least 20 dead sheep have been found in the past month on Old Dad Mountain, about 15 miles southeast of Baker, Calif. Tests have confirmed that at least some of the animals died from a strain of pneumonia generally transmitted by domestic sheep and goats and usually fatal to bighorn.

“It’s really kind of a grim situation to be perfectly honest with you,” said Linda Slater, spokeswoman for the 1.6 million-acre preserve.

Officials from the National Park Service and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife are now considering whether to hunt down sheep showing signs of sickness. But even that might not be enough to halt the spread.

“To really get rid of the disease, you have to kill every animal, but that’s not practical or likely to happen,” Slater said. “There are no good management options.”

Wildlife officials in Nevada are watching the situation anxiously, hoping the sick animals can be contained somehow before they come into contact with sheep in the Silver State.

The diseased herd is “only a 45-mile trip as the crow flies” from mountains that harbor desert bighorn at the southern edge of Clark County, said Doug Nielsen, spokesman for the Nevada Department of Wildlife.

“We do have some right down there close to the state line. So it’s a concern, and it’s something that needs to be monitored.”

Slater said the afflicted animals are part of what she called “the biggest and healthiest herd” in Southern California. Transplants from the group have been used in the past to bolster struggling herds elsewhere in California, she said.

Bighorn have no natural resistance to pneumonia and tend to die at a high rate. Those that survive become carriers, infecting newborn lambs in a cycle that can ravage the herd for up to a decade.

Biologists may never know for certain how the isolated herd of 200 to 300 sheep was exposed to the disease, but they have their suspicions.

Slater said a domestic goat turned up in the area about six months ago — a rare and unexplained find — but the animal showed no signs of pneumonia. However, tests for the disease are not always reliable, she said.

Biologists and veterinarians “seem really pessimistic that anything can be done” to keep the entire herd from being exposed, Slater said. The worry now is that the disease will spread to one of four other herds in the preserve, possibly by a ram sent wandering when rutting season gets underway in the coming weeks.

Volunteers from the Sierra Club and the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep assisted with the initial search for sick and dead animals. A lack of resources and the remote, rugged location of the herd have hampered efforts so far to address the outbreak, Slater said.

Back in Nevada, wildlife officials are hoping that hot, dry weather this summer will keep the affected herd close to the water sources in its home range and away from other herds. Beyond that, Nielsen said, there isn’t much that can be done from the Nevada side of the state line but to wait and watch what happens.

Bighorn sheep once roamed nearly every mountain range in Nevada, but their numbers began to decline in the mid-1800s, as settlers and prospectors swept into the region, mostly in the north.

By 1960, disease, unregulated hunting and habitat loss had reduced Nevada’s bighorn population to about 1,200 animals in a handful of ranges, none of them north of Ely or west of Hawthorne.

Wildlife officials launched the Bighorn Sheep Release Program in 1967 to return the official state animal to its former glory.

Today, Nevada is home to more bighorn sheep than any other state — better than 10,000 adult animals in at least 60 different mountain ranges.

But disease always looms as a threat to those gains.

In 2010, pneumonia nearly wiped out a herd of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep in the Ruby Mountains near Elko.

The most recent outbreak in Southern Nevada struck in 2002 in the Specter Range, along U.S. Highway 95 about 75 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

After several years of what Nielsen called “very low lamb survival,” the herd’s numbers finally began to rebound in 2009.

Wildlife biologists investigate bighorn sheep deaths

Bighorn sheep near a wildlife guzzler in the Old Dad Mountain range in the Mojave National Preserve. (FILE PHOTO)

by Janet Zimmerman
Press-Enterprise

Wildlife officials are investigating the recent deaths of four bighorn sheep in the desert near Baker to see if the animals died of pneumonia.

The animals were found late last month by a National Park Service employee who was inspecting man-made watering holes, known as guzzlers, on Old Dad Mountain, 15 miles southeast of Baker, according to a news release issued today, June 6.

The employee observed other animals that appeared to be weak and unsteady, with labored breathing. Laboratory analysis of blood and tissue samples taken from one of the animals indicated that it had pneumonia, which is usually fatal to the species.

The bighorn can contract the disease from domestic sheep and goats. Biologists from the Park Service and state Department of Fish and Wildlife are conducting a field survey to determine the scope of the outbreak, the news release said.

Scientists believe there are 200 to 300 desert bighorn around Old Dad Mountain. It is one of the largest native populations in the Mojave Desert, according to Stephanie Dubois, superintendent of the Mojave National Preserve.