Threatened species of Ovis canadensis

The future of bighorn sheep depends on the preservation and improvement of critical native habitat range. Human activities on bighorn sheep habitat are the most widespread threat to bighorn sheep. Activies that reduce access tp prime habitat, cause bighorn sheep to, stop migration, and fragment from large herds into smaller herds. Human activities responsible for declines in sheep use of an area include hiking and backpacking, snow skiing, water skiing, fishing, motorbiking, four-wheel-drive vehicle use, construction and use of roads, urban development, and recreational development. When bighorn sheep are pushed from prime to marginal habitat, mortality usually increases and productivity decreases. Some herds have adapted to human activity. Bighorn sheep are poor competitors with other wild and domestic ungulates, and their range is diminishing under this pressure. The effect of domestic livestock grazing on bighorn sheep is controversial and depends on the proximity and population size of competing species. Domestic livestock have been reported to have little effect if they do not graze on critical bighorn sheep winter ranges. Nevertheless, extensive competition by livestock, especially on public lands, persists and is one of the reasons for the decline in density of bighorn sheep populations. Elk (Cervus elaphus) and deer (Odocoileus virginianus and O. hemionus) can also be serious competitors with bighorn sheep on marginal habitat.

In 1996: Under the Animal Collection Guidelines of the NMDGF Policy, the Aoudad (or barbary sheep) was listed as one of several animals to be "destroyed, following sighting in occupied bighorn sheep habitat" -- because of potential for disease transmission and forage competition with bighorn sheep.