In December, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department helped relocate 77 bighorn sheep out in West Texas, moving them from the Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area near Alpine all the way to Franklin Mountains State Park in El Paso.
They did this not by herding them or loading them up in vehicles but instead by flying out there in helicopters, shooting nets down and capturing them.
For about a century now, bighorn sheep have almost been extinct in the Lone Star State – and the story behind this massive operation is the subject of a new podcast called “Better Outside,” which is produced by the parks department.
Morgan O’Hanlon, the podcast’s host and a senior staff writer at TPWD, joined the Standard to discuss the upcoming season.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity:
Texas Standard: Before we get into the podcast, let’s talk a little bit more about this bighorn sheep relocation effort. It’s my understanding that for the podcast you were actually on the scene as these sheep were relocated by a helicopter. What did that look like?
Morgan O’Hanlon: Well, it was cold and windy out there, and it was loud, and the helicopter would come in every 30 minutes or so and stir up a lot of dust. And it was just crazy to see them coming around the big mesa of Elephant Mountain and deliver the sheep very gently on the ground.
It must have been exciting and a little surreal looking, I would imagine.
Yeah, it really was “when sheep fly.”
Now, in the first episode of the series I know you talk about how part of the current population issues with bighorn sheep can actually be traced back to a TPWD effort in the late ’50s. What happened?
That’s right. So as science has progressed, so has our knowledge of Texas ecology. And as our knowledge has increased, so has the mission of TPWD.
In fact, when Texas Parks and Wildlife was founded back in the 1800s, it was the Texas Fish and Oyster Commission. In the 20th century, it was expanded to include hunting, and that’s when the aoudad was introduced to expand our hunting resources here in Texas.
Aoudad, in addition to domesticated sheep that people have on farms, carry a disease called M. ovi – mycoplasma ova pneumoniae. That name kind of sounds like pneumonia, and that’s exactly what it causes in bighorn sheep. It’s a really, really deadly disease, and it’s made it really hard for the sheep to have a comeback.
» MORE: How are bighorns doing in their return to El Paso?
Why has this been such an uphill battle, do you think?
There is no vaccine for that disease, and that’s something we’re continuing to research, but that is a work in progress. And these aoudad are just spread across Texas in such great degrees. And there’s so many of them that it’s going to be really hard to eradicate them if we ever can.
So I think it’s a problem of mitigation of that problem and finding new homes for the bighorns and ways to isolate them from the disease.
Now, what about the podcast? What’s the big idea? What are you hoping to do with the show?
So like with the episode on the bighorns, we’re trying to expose people to some of the science we do at TPWD. But we’re not just doing that.
I am a big-time endurance athlete, and I love endurance sports. So I wanna show people some of that side of the outdoors, some more accessible parts of the outdoors, and really take them out into the field. And I mean that literally.
So every episode, I’m going out into the field, talking to people, showing them the sounds of the outdoors, and trying to get them excited about not just what we do at TPWD, but what outdoors people across the state are doing. And maybe it’ll inspire people to go outside themselves or use some of our resources that we have at the agency to help other people get outside.
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Yeah, it’s an endurance sport just to get a podcast off the ground, as I’m sure you well know. What else are you going to be talking about in this upcoming season?
We’re having an episode on hog hunting. There is a new or proposed trail that will go across Texas. I talked with the founder of that and got to see part of that trail. I took my mom on the Devils River. She is not outdoorsy, so that was a big experience for her.
Well, it sounds like it’s going to be a terrific podcast. And the first episode is up now?
The first episode came out last Wednesday, and it’ll continue to air every Wednesday for the next six weeks. There’s six episodes in our first season, and we’ll hope to get another batch out in the fall.
