Sacramento, CA — A lawsuit regarding the controversial plan to kill endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep has environmentalists fuming.
State wildlife officials proposed the plan to kill the bighorn sheep due to their contact with domestic sheep infected with highly contagious diseases.
Environmentalists say the government isn´t doing enough to protect the sheep. The wild sheep live in the Eastern Sierra, where they are threatened by mountain lions and genetic problems caused by inbreeding because of the small surviving population.
After the bighorn population in the central and southern Sierra Nevada declined to a low of 100 ten years ago, the federal government listed them as an endangered species in 2000. The population has climbed to an estimated 350 animals in recent years
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This post was last modified on 01/31/2009 2:32 pm