COLORADO Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials successfully began a new study this week on the decreasing bighorn sheep population near the Maroon bells - Snowmass Wilderness Area.
Parks and Wildlife officials partnered with the U.S. Forest Service to research why bighorn sheep count has decreased over the past 15 years.
Last week, wildlife managers captured and placed radio collars on ten bighorn sheep in the Aspen-Snowmass area.
Officials believe that respiratory diseases caused by pneumonia bacteria may be the cause for the recent decline.
"We're trying to track down the cause of this disease and reverse it and see if we can stop the herds from declining," said Mike Porras, Public Information Officer for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
This study will find groundbreaking information about how the herds interact with each other and various species in the area.
"Learning more about their movements is critical in keeping wild and domestic sheep herds from overlapping," said Perry Will, Wildlife manager in Glenwood Springs.
Porras says the study will last approximately two years
