BOULDER, Colo., July 24 (UPI) — Colorado’s dwindling bighorn sheep population is fragmented and isolated across the high elevations of the Rocky Mountains, making them vulnerable to a genetic “bottleneck” — a lack of new genetic material.
But new research suggests inbreeding isn’t responsible for the declining numbers of bighorn sheep in Colorado.
When pockets of animals become isolated from the larger population, inbreeding can result in faulty genetics, making localized populations more vulnerable to disease. Genetic bottlenecking has plagued mountain lions in Southern California, and scientists thought the phenomenon was to blame for bighorn sheep declines in the Rockies.
But researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder found all five herds inside Rocky Mountain National Park to be sustaining relatively healthy levels of genetic variation.
“There’s been enough gene flow between the herds, primarily due to high ram migration, that the population has been genetically rescued,” researcher Catherine Driscoll, a grad student studying in the school’s department of ecology and evolutionary biology, said in a press release.
Between 2001 and 2009, Colorado’s bighorn population shrank by 10.2 percent; it’s been declining every year since the 1800s.
The new research, published in the Journal of Wildlife Management, suggests factors like nutrition deficiencies and the encroachment of mountain goats are more likely to explain the species’ downturn. Some populations which are closer to roads and trails may be more susceptible to disease.
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