By admin 
TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – Arizona Game and Fish will use helicopters to capture bighorn sheep in the Pusch Ridge area near the Santa Catalina Mountains on Oct. 12 and 13. Residents nearby may hear low-flying helicopters during the operation.
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The goal is to test the sheep for diseases and learn more about how the species is doing.
Biologists will lean out of helicopters and use handheld net-guns to safely restrain 10 sheep from the air, one at a time. Each chase is limited to five minutes per sheep. If crews cannot catch a sheep in that time, they move on to another one.
Once a sheep is secured, crews collect blood samples and fit the animal with a GPS collar before releasing it back into the wild.
Michael Colaianni, with the Arizona Game and Fish Department, said the this will help track changes the sheep are experiencing.
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“It’s also going to give us a chance to fit some GPS collars to those animals and it’ll help us see how their habitat has perhaps changed or moved following that 2020 Bighorn fire,” Colaianni said.
Biologists will suspend the captures if conditions get too hot or if they run into complications with an animal. Officials say this method is the fastest and safest way to get the job done.
“Bighorns are extremely resilient and they handle these captures very well,” Colaianni said. “We get to the animal, we tranquilize the animal and do all of the work that our biologists need to do as quickly as possible so they can go out and continue to live their normal lives as bighorn sheep.”
The capture is expected to take place on Monday and Tuesday, or until 10 sheep are captured. Game and Fish says not to be alarmed by the helicopters and to give crews space to do their work.
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