Restoring and sustaining desert sheep in West Texas remains challenging, and hard-to-make decisions must be made if it is to continue. 

Story and photography by Bob Zaiglin

Of all the big-game animals on the North American continent, wild sheep are the most challenging to pursue.  There are four subspecies of sheep — Rocky Mountain bighorn, Desert bighorn, Dall sheep, and Stone sheep.

Wild sheep are highly regarded by sportsmen, and those hunters lucky enough to harvest all four species, referred to as the Grand Slam, enjoy a sense of gratification like no other in the hunting world.

I have had the privilege to take three of the four with a magnificent snow white Dall sheep in the caribou moss-laden McKenzie Mountains in the Northwest Territories, a Boone & Crockett Stone sheep in British Columbia, and while on an incredibly challenging, self-guided  hunt in Colorado, I took a Rocky Mountain bighorn.  The only one I have yet to hunt is the Desert bighorn, which may very well be the most sought-after sheep by hunters because they are not overly abundant.

In the U. S., the opportunity to hunt desert sheep is based on a lottery system.  Obtaining a coveted sheep tag is nothing shy of winning the lottery.  I have been applying for a desert sheep hunting permit in Nevada for 25 years, but even with 25 preference points, I have yet to draw a tag.

I have, however, spent a considerable amount of time pursuing desert sheep in the Trans Pecos region of Texas with my camera.  Over the last 10 years I have had the privilege of filming desert sheep on Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Elephant Mountain Management Area while exposing our wildlife students at Southwest Texas College to its diverse habitat inhabited by a plethora of wild species, including desert sheep, mule deer, blue quail, and the rare Montezuma quail.

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