Texas Fauna Project

Desert Bighorn Sheep

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Here, Froylan Hernandez, a wildlife biologist and the Desert Bighorn Sheep Program leader for Texas Parks and Wildlife, explains the risk aoudads pose to bighorns. Aoudads, an exotic ungulate introduced by the state and private landowners as a game animal in the 1950s, have thrived across the state. However, they expose the native bighorn to the lethal MOV bacteria, and also compete for forage and range. Largely as a result, bighorn populations in Texas have dropped by 60% from 2019 to 2024.