Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: New Mexico
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Bighorn sheep are culturally significant to the Jicarilla Apache people. Through history, bighorn sheep were found and hunted throughout the higher elevations of the Jicarilla Apache’s ancestral range. An opportunity to consider the potential of introducing bighorn sheep to Jicarilla Apache Nation lands has seemingly been created by a series of wildfires. The NM CRU is assisting with modeling potential habitat and conducting a disease transmission risk assessment for Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep in the Archuleta Mesa area of the Jicarilla Apache Nation in northern New Mexico.