IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Forstenzer, M. | |
| Clawing its way to the top - The cougars burgeoning population is proving a challenge for some other creatures | |
| 2000 National Wildlife: 36-42 | |
Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep were in trouble. Their population had been knocked down to 250 in the late 1970s, largely because of disease contracted from domestic sheep. So California officials began an intensive reintroduction effort in an attempt to establish new herds and bolster the creature's numbers. At first, the program seemed to be working: Bighorn numbers rose to 310 by the mid-1980s. But at the end of the decade the population began to plummet. Last April, when only 100 Sierra Nevada bighorn were left, federal officials listed the species as endangered. The cause of the sheep's recent downfall was one that few biologists could have imagined two decades ago: cougars. |
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