Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis) are the West’s cliff-country specialists: shock-absorbing hooves, binocular-grade eyes, and rib-rattling rams that can turn a granite ledge into a boxing ring. They nearly vanished a century ago under the one-two punch of unregulated hunting and diseases carried by domestic sheep and goats. Across the Rockies and adjoining plains, wildlife agencies and partners have spent decades clawing them back with reintroductions, habitat work, and tight harvest regulation. The progress is real—but fragile. Pneumonia continues to kneecap lamb survival, and climate stress is tightening the vise on already marginal alpine and breaklands habitat. Where They Stand Today—and How They Got Back By the early 1900s, many herds were gone or reduced to remnant bands. Modern recovery leaned on trap-and-transplant
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 are the West’s cliff-country specialists: shock-absorbing hooves, binocular-grade eyes, and rib-rattling rams that can turn a granite ledge into a boxing ring. They nearly vanished a century ago under the one-two punch of unregulated hunting and diseases carried by domestic sheep and goats. Across the Rockies and adjoining plains, wildlife agencies and partners have spent decades clawing them back with reintroductions, habitat work, and tight harvest regulation. The progress is real—but fragile. Pneumonia continues to kneecap lamb survival, and climate stress is tightening the vise on already marginal alpine and breaklands habitat.){kind=link}