Scientists trap bighorn sheep to better understand die-offs

The female bighorn sheep looked like two sacks of potatoes as the helicopter lowered them to the ground. Blindfolded and hobbled, they stayed motionless while a crew of wildlife biologists, game wardens and a veterinarian ran to them to begin testing. Five sets of hands worked on the first ewe. Someone took her temperature: 101.7. A game warden held her down. Hank Edwards, a wildlife disease specialist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, swabbed her tonsils, nasal passage and ears. Another person fit her with two radio collars. Within minutes, the group carried her to the bottom of a rocky hill and let her go. Sheep No. 12 was one of six female bighorns captured, tested and collared Sunday near Jackson as part of a multistate effort to better understand what’s killing the animals. Experts know pneumonia often brings death, but they want to know what combination of bacteria, parasites, habitat, weather or overcrowding makes them susceptible to the deadly bacteria. “How come they can live with these pathogens most of the time and then all of a sudden tip over?” Edwards asked. “What is the tipping point here?”...more 

And I wonder what the "tipping point" is for taxpayers who fund hiring helicopters and pay for five people to swab the nasal passages of a bighorn sheep.