NDGF bighorn sheep
The North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s 2025 bighorn sheep survey, completed by recounting lambs in March, revealed a record 378 bighorn sheep in the badlands of western North Dakota, up 8% from 2024 and 10% above the five-year average. The 2025 survey was the fifth record count in the past six years.
Brett Wiedmann, Department big game biologist, said 104 rams, 234 ewes and 40 lambs were counted. Not included are approximately 40 bighorn sheep in the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and bighorns introduced to the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in 2020.
The northern badlands population increased by 8% from 2024 and was the highest count on record. The southern badlands population remained near its lowest level since bighorns were reintroduced there in 1966.
“Adult rams were near record numbers, but the ewe count surpassed the previous record by an impressive 14%,” Wiedmann said. “Lamb recruitment and winter survival of lambs were both unfortunately well below average.”
Wiedmann said numerous lambs were observed with clinical signs of pneumonia during the summer survey, which was likely the primary contributor to the poor lamb recruitment observed in 2025.
According to Department veterinarian, Logan Weyand, it is not uncommon to experience episodes of low lamb survival when a population of bighorn sheep is exposed to certain pathogens.
“We know from annual disease testing that the state’s population of bighorn sheep has not cleared bacteria introduced in 2014 that predisposes bighorn lambs to pneumonia, so highly variable rates of lamb recruitment in recent years are not surprising,” he said.
Department biologists count and classify all bighorn sheep in late summer, and then recount lambs the following March, as they approach one year of age to determine recruitment.
Currently, about 500 bighorn sheep comprise the populations managed by the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, National Park Service and the Three Affiliated Tribes Fish and Wildlife Division.
A bighorn sheep hunting season is tentatively scheduled for 2026. The status of the season will be determined Sept. 1, following the 2026 summer population survey.
Game and Fish issued eight licenses in 2025, and the Three Affiliated Tribes Fish and Wildlife Division issued two licenses, one to a tribal member and the second to a non-tribal member selected from the Department’s pool of applicants. All hunters were successful in harvesting rams.
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