Bighorn sheep surprises residents

PLAINS – A wandering mother-to-be- bighorn sheep bedded down to prepare for the big day in an ideal spot: quiet, shaded, pine-needles galore, and right at the foot of a mountain. Problem is, her location of choice just happened to be beneath the porch of local residents Rob and Debbie Griggs.

“They’ve come up to our fountain before and drank from it,” Debbie Griggs said. “We’ve always had sheep in our yard, but in the 10 years we’ve lived here, we’ve never had one bed down here.”

Last weekend, Griggs noticed a female bighorn sheep frequenting the backyard, separate from the herd, and found it to be abnormal.

“I noticed she was alone and kept coming back,” Griggs said. “So I did a little research, and read that the sheep, when they get ready to have babies, like to go off away from the herd to nest and have the baby. So, I thought ‘maybe that’s what she’s doing,’ and so we made sure to keep the fountain and waterfall filled and going so she could have water and we haven’t even filled our hot tub yet because I don’t want the chemicals to harm her.”

The ewe ended up bedding down beneath the raised porch, but no sign of baby yet.

“She hasn’t been back in a few days, maybe she already had it,” Griggs said. “But we keep a lookout for her.”

Recent news indicates the shrinking numbers of bighorn sheep in the Thompson Falls area due to what Fish, Wildlife and Parks calls a “highway mortality problem.” FWP stated that during the 2008-2012 period, a total of 110 sheep (50 ewes, 60 rams) were killed by collisions with vehicles traveling on Highway 200 (107) and by train (3).

“We have lost 50 breeding or potentially breeding females during this time frame when hunters have taken only five ewes on permits,” FWP biologist Bruce Sterling said. “Now that we are at a low population for sheep, each mortality is more critical.”

If the ewe underneath Griggs’ porch can stay clear of trains and automobiles and birth her baby, the addition to the herd would certainly help with numbers.