By Steve Hubrecht
[email protected]
A Radium Hot Springs resident concerned about the number of bighorn sheep being killed by vehicles during the fall rut has started a Facebook group to help keep track of the incidences.
Environmental communications professional (and former Pioneer editor), Nicole Trigg, has lived in Radium for the past two-and-a-half years, and has developed a deep appreciation for village’s resident bighorn herd, frequently observing them during her walks around town, and even occasionally watching their social behaviour right outside the window of her home.
“Working in conservation, I tend to be hyper aware of wildlife issues. And since moving to Radium, I’ve fallen in love with the bighorn sheep,” Trigg told the Pioneer. “It’s hard to miss them, they are such a part of the village. You see them all the time, and if you watch them closely, you start to get to know them. You can identify individuals, not just by how they look, but by how they behave. They really are iconic: they’re so majestic and ancient looking yet so skittish and gentle at the same time. I definitely have soft spot for them.”
Earlier this year, when Trigg came across a dead bighorn in the middle of the highway surrounded by a pool of blood just 50 metres south of the village, she was devastated. She called the Report All Poachers and Polluters (RAPP) line to report the scene, and received a follow up call from local wildlife enthusiast Kent Kebe, who works with the provincial Ministry of Forest, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (FLNRO) to help count and track the Radium bighorns. She learned from Kebe that traffic-related bighorn fatalities in Radium were on the rise and appeared to come from vehicles driving well above the posted speed limits, based on the type of injuries to the sheep and the large amount of vehicle parts at the impact sites.
But it was in response to a recent conversation with Kebe about the latest string of bighorn deaths caused by speeding vehicles, that Trigg started the Help the Bighorn Herd page on Facebook last week, launching on Sunday, Dec. 5.
“The idea is to have a public record. To put up updates when sheep get hit, to let others be able to put up their own updates, and to increase public awareness around the issue of the effects of higher speeds on the sheep,” said Trigg, adding that addressing bighorn vehicle mortality is even more pressing now, because of the much higher volumes of traffic that are flowing through Radium every spring and fall as part of the Kicking Horse Canyon upgrades on the TransCanada highway.
That project shuts down the national highway between Lake Louise and Golden and sends all cross-country traffic instead down Highway 93 South to Radium, then back up north on Highway 95 to Golden. This detour passes through several parts of the village that the sheep enjoy hanging out in, and comes during times (early spring and late fall) when traffic mortality is already particularly bad for the Radium bighorns. The closure (and traffic detours) are projected to continue through until at least the end of 2024.
“We have been seeing some speeding,” Kebe told the Pioneer, adding there have been three confirmed incidences of bighorns hit and killed by vehicles in Radium since the rut started in late November, and two more high-impact collisions in which traffic struck bighorns, and the injured sheep managed to leave the scene, “but we have not been able to find the sheep since, to see how badly hurt it is, or if it is lying dead somewhere.”
Two of the three confirmed fatalities almost certainly involved speeding, explained Kebe, noting they occurred in zones with a speed limit of 60 kilometres per hour and the damage and injuries to the sheep strongly indicates that the vehicles were travelling far in excess of 60 kilometres per hour.
“One sheep was killed instantly, and there were vehicle parts strewn everywhere,” said Kebe, adding that in one of impact collisions in which the fatality is not confirmed “sent the sheep flying up over the vehicle. It landed in the other lane (of the highway), before it scrambled up and left the road and disappeared into the dark.”
Kebe outlined that bighorn traffic fatality numbers were higher than normal this spring, during the first TransCanada closure, but were not higher than normal during this past fall’s TransCanada closure, although he hastened to point out that this due more to the fall’s warmer temperatures than anything else.
“We had warmer than usual conditions right through most of November. So the sheep stayed on the golf course much later than they typically do, instead of moving into north Radium. That definitely helped keep traffic fatalities down,” said Kebe. “We dodged a bullet there.”
Kebe has been doing sheep counts for three decades, and notes that the Radium herd once numbered 240 sheep, but that in recent years the population has dropped to somewhere around 140. A recent bighorn count found 120 sheep, but Kebe said that is likely because the bighorns are much more scattered across the village (and therefore harder to count) during the fall rut, and that often in the past sheep counts during the fall ruts have been lower than counts at other times of the year. Kebe also asked dog owners to please keep their pets on leash around the Radium bighorns (see story in the Dec. 2 issue of the Pioneer) as the village continues to have problems with dogs harassing the sheep.
Just prior to press deadline, on the night o Monday, Dec. 13, fourth bighorn — an ewe — died after being hit by traffic. The incident happened at the edge of the village, at the bottom of the Radium hill (in a 60 kilometre per hour zone), and the vehicle battered the ewe so severely that she had to be euthanized later. Wildlife officials suspect speeding to be a factor.
As of press time the Help the Bighorn Herd page had been up one week, and already garnered 44 followers. To more information visit www.facebook.com/helpradiumbighorns.
