Wild Sheep Society of BC’s largest Conservation and Mountain Hunting Expo ever, is well underway in Penticton, B.C.
The expo kicked off on Thursday with a conversation surrounding the challenges Big Horn Sheep are facing. Around 80 people including Indigenous community members, biologists and sheep society members gathered for a Bighorn Sheep Disease Symposium.
“Today is just education and having a unified voice to go to government,” said Wild Sheep Society of BC’s Chris Barker.
“But I’ve been lobbying government for 30 years around the disease issue, and it’s very frustrating that we don’t have policy and legislation to protect our wild sheep.”
Okanagan’s Big Horn sheep population has suffered significant declines over the past few decades.
There are four distinct sheep populations in the Okanagan: the Southern Okanagan, the Similkameen, Okanagan Mountain Park and the West Side Road population.
“Everything’s down probably about 50 per cent from probably 2015, 2018,” said Barker.
Although Big Horn Sheep are facing a number of challenges, experts say the main challenge is the diseases that are currently attacking sheep.
“Habitat, humans, development, forestry, road, cattle, the habitat. Sometimes there’s not enough food out there for them to survive as well, especially in some harder winters. And then there’s predators as well there’s a number of things,” said Jeremiah Kruger with the Okanagan Nation Alliance’s wildlife department.
“The focus is that they’re facing three diseases, sheep. As of right now, we don’t know any sheep that carry two diseases. But something that we’re worried about is when they do potentially catch another disease when they’re already fighting one.”
This is the society’s first expo in Penticton and the event will run until the 24 at the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre.
On Friday and Saturday, Wild Sheep Society of BC will host their Salute to Conservation and Mountain Hunting Expo featuring ‘leading’ Mountain brands in the industry.
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