An airborne bighorn sheep transplant operation was conducted at Big Arm State Park on Wednesday, with a goal of moving 60 sheep from Wild Horse Island.

A contracted helicopter crew netted the sheep from the air, followed by “muggers” on the ground getting the sheep ready for a short flight to Big Arm in slings under the helicopter.

The sheep were processed at Big Arm, with biologists taking nasal swabs, throat cultures and blood and fecal samples. The sheep were slated to be transported by trailer to the southern Cabinet Mountains and the Kootenai Falls Wildlife Management Area near Libby to augment herds there.

The transplant was designed to reduce the sheep population on Wild Horse Island, where a recent aerial survey determined there were at least 155 sheep, including 57 ewes, 52 adult rams, 21 subadult rams, seven half-curl rams, 15 lambs and three sheep that weren’t classified.

Those counts to do not reflect the entire population, which is well above the island’s carrying capacity.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is trying to manage for a target population of about 100 sheep.

State parks staffers have been working for several years to conserve the island’s shortgrass prairie habitat that sheep and other wildlife depend on. This is the third sheep transplant operation conducted on the island over the last few years.

The Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribes and the Wild Sheep Foundation also are participating in the sheep transplant.

Reporter Jim Mann writes for the Daily Inter Lake, and may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.