49 bighorn sheep in Nevada transplanted to Utah

Forty-nine bighorn sheep have been moved from Nevada to Utah under a joint effort by wildlife officials in the two states.

Biologists from the Nevada Department of Wildlife and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources used net guns to capture the animals in the Muddy and Black mountain ranges northeast of Las Vegas on Monday and Tuesday

They released the last of them into the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area on Wednesday.

Mike Cox of the Nevada agency said it’s a chance to assist Utah in its efforts to restore bighorns to habitat where herds were killed off over a century ago, and to help Nevada reduce its Muddy Mountain sheep population to “a level consistent with available water sources.”

It was the second such capture-and-release operation in a year.