{"id":37545,"date":"2022-11-02T00:48:51","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T06:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wildlife-agency-seeks-public-help-on-poached-desert-bighorn\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:38:07","slug":"wildlife-agency-seeks-public-help-on-poached-desert-bighorn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wildlife-agency-seeks-public-help-on-poached-desert-bighorn\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildlife agency seeks public help on poached desert bighorn"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tyson
Tyson Floersheim of Colorado Parks and Wildlife is pictured Monday investigating the illegal killing of a desert bighorn sheep off Colorado Highway 141. CPW seeks the public's help in identifying the person who poached the ram. (Courtesy Colorado Parks and Wildlife)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife is seeking the public\u2019s help in an investigation regarding the poaching of a desert bighorn ram between Gateway and Grand Junction.<\/p>\n

Wildlife officers responded Monday when a rock climber called to report a desert big horn that had been shot and left on Colorado Highway 141 between mile markers 147 and 148 west of the Gunnison River.<\/p>\n

Officers found a mature desert bighorn and determined the ram had been shot at least 24 hours earlier, according to a CPW news release.<\/p>\n

A rifle bullet was recovered from behind the front shoulder of the ram. The investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ram was shot and left there with nothing removed from it,\u201d said CPW wildlife officer Kevin Duckett in the news release. \u201cThere is a desert bighorn sheep hunting season in that unit, but it does not start until Nov. 1, and this ram was killed out of season and left to rot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Duckett said the ram had a \u215d to \u00be curl of its horns. Fines could exceed $25,000 for the illegal take of a bighorn ram over half-curl.<\/p>\n

Willful destruction of a big-game animal is a felony in Colorado and can result in a lifetime suspension of hunting and fishing privileges. Convictions could result in fines and jail time, depending on the charge.<\/p>\n

CPW is asking the public for any information regarding the parties responsible for the killing of the bighorn. Duckett can be reached at 970-275-3556 or kevin.duckett@state.co.us<\/a>. Wildlife officer Stuart Sinclair may also be reached at 970-209-2370 or stuart.sinclair@state.co.us<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anonymous tipsters may call or email Operation Game Thief at 877-265-6648 or game.thief@state.co.us<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Operation Game Thief is a Colorado Parks and Wildlife program that pays rewards up to $1,000 to citizens who turn in poachers.<\/p>\n

Poaching robs from the public of a valued natural resource for hunters, businesses and state tax and fee revenue, CPW said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDesert bighorn sheep are pretty limited, and CPW offers very limited opportunities for hunting these sheep,\u201d Duckett said. \u201cThis act of poaching takes away from sportspersons.\u201d<\/p>\n

An estimated 175 desert bighorns inhabit the Dolores River corridor<\/a> in Montezuma, Montrose, San Miguel and Dolores counties. Statewide, the population is estimated at 540.<\/p>\n

Desert bighorns were reintroduced into the Dolores River canyon near Slick Rock during the mid-1980s. The last bighorns had disappeared from the area in the 1950s because of factors including illegal poaching, predation, livestock disease and habitat and range destruction.<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

was illegally shot between Gateway and Grand Junction near the Gunnison River<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-37545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83692,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37545\/revisions\/83692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37545"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=37545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}