Conservation Status and Trends
The number of desert bighorn in North America in pristine times is unknown but most likely was in the tens of thousands. Seton estimated the pre-Columbian numbers of all subspecies of bighorn sheep in North America at 1.5-2 million. By 1960, however, the overall bighorn population in the United States, including desert bighorns, had dwindled to 15,000-18,200. Buechner documented major declines from the 1850s to the early 20th century. These declines were attributed to excessive hunting; competition and diseases from domestic livestock, particularly domestic sheep; usurpation of watering areas and critical range by human activities; and human-induced habitat changes.
In 1939, after intense lobbying by Frederick Russell Burnham and the Arizona Boy Scouts, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a proclamation that established two desert areas in southwestern Arizona to help preserve the desert bighorn sheep: Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge In 1941, the San Andres National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico was added.
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