![\"During](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Flying-sheep-597272225_1318549150311815_2590662376418922408_n-2.7.26.jpg\")
During the winter, the Wyoming Game and Fish contracts with helicopter companies and pilots to capture and transport bighorn sheep and animals for research. (Courtesy Wyoming Game and Fish Department)Why Now?<\/p>\nUntil about March, folks might catch sight of blindfolded bighorn sheep or deer flying around, slung in harnesses under\u00a0helicopters.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t worry, the animals aren\u2019t being nabbed by well-equipped poachers, they\u2019re being transported for population studies, disease testing and other research by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.<\/p>\n
And as unnatural as the experience might seem for terrestrial species,\u00a0wildlife\u00a0biologists say the process doesn\u2019t traumatize them.<\/p>\n
Once researchers are done examining them, the critters are set free in the wild again, no worse for wear.<\/p>\n
During the winter, the Wyoming Game and Fish contracts with helicopter companies and pilots to capture and transport bighorn sheep and animals for research. (Courtesy Wyoming Game and Fish Department)Why Now?<\/p>\n
Why are the winter months the best time to capture animals from the air, and sometimes transport them via\u00a0helicopter?<\/p>\n
December to March it\u2019s the best time window between\u00a0wildlife\u00a0being mostly in the rugged high country in the summer, and giving birth to their young in the spring, Tony Mong, Game and Fish Cody Region\u00a0wildlifebiologist, told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n
The winter range occupied by big game animals is \u201clower, flatter topography\u201d than the rugged high country they occupy during the summer and fall, he said.<\/p>\n
Animals are easier to find in the open lowlands, and the topography also makes airborne capture and transport more efficient and safer.<\/p>\n
Moreover, using\u00a0helicopters allows researchers to get a broad sampling of animals from across wide areas of the herds\u2019 winter ranges.<\/p>\n
Game and Fish doesn\u2019t have\u00a0helicopters or flight crews for the task. Instead, the agency contracts with companies that specialize in\u00a0wildlife\u00a0flights.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fairly dangerous work. It\u2019s very specific work. There are companies that specialize in doing this year-round,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Similarly, Game and Fish contracts with private\u00a0helicopter\u00a0companies to\u00a0transport fish<\/a>\u00a0for stocking remote high-country lakes.<\/p>\n Helicopter\u00a0wildlife\u00a0research operations shut down around March because that\u2019s when moose, elk, deer, bighorn sheep and antelope start giving birth to their young, and are best left undisturbed, Mong said.<\/p>\n To capture animals for study, they are either caught with nets dropped from helicopters or shot with tranquilizer darts from the air.<\/p>\n Darting is far less common, Mong said. It\u2019s usually reserved for the largest animals, such as moose.<\/p>\n In many cases,\u00a0helicopter\u00a0crews can swoop in and net animals, then hop out, quickly get what they need, and set the animals free immediately.<\/p>\n Once an animal is netted, tissue or blood samples can be taken or radio collars can be put on them right onsite, Mong said.<\/p>\n In other cases, the animals are blindfolded, put into slings and flown to a central location where biologists can conduct more thorough examinations.<\/p>\n Then they\u2019re flown back and set free again, to rejoin the herd.<\/p>\n Bighorn sheep are the most-commonly transported species.<\/p>\n Places where people might see airborne bighorns this winter include the Jackson area, near Rawlins and also in the Dubois region.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a \u201clong-term research project\u201d involving the Jackson bighorn herd, Mong said.<\/p>\n Among other things, the sheep are being tested for bacterial pneumonia infections, and body fat ratios.<\/p>\n Animals\u2019 body fat is a good measure by which to determine their chances of surviving the winter.<\/p>\n The Whiskey Mountain herd, likewise, will continue to be tested for pneumonia, Mong said.<\/p>\n Pneumonia can be particularly deadly for bighorn sheep, and the Whiskey Mountain herd has suffered\u00a0massive losses<\/a>\u00a0after battling decades of infection.<\/p>\n In the Rawlins area, bighorn sheep from the famed Ferris-Seminoe herd will be captured and examined.<\/p>\n That herd has historically tested negative for pneumonia infections, and thankfully, that\u2019s still the case so far, Mong said.<\/p>\n![\"During](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Flying-sheep-597603986_1318549130311817_5866888383275741583_n-2.7.26.jpg\")
During the winter, the Wyoming Game and Fish contracts with helicopter companies and pilots to capture and transport bighorn sheep and animals for research. (Courtesy Wyoming Game and Fish Department)Netting And Darting<\/p>\n