March 5 Luncheon featuring Froylan Hernandez, Director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Desert Bighorn Sheep Program. 

Desert bighorn sheep roamed the Trans-Pecos mountains in healthy numbers in the late 1800’s. However, by the early 1960’s, the native desert bighorns were extirpated from the West TX landscape. Reasons for their demise include unregulated hunting, competition for resources from domestic sheep/goats, and diseases associated with domestic sheep/goats and transmitted to the desert bighorns. Through aggressive restoration efforts desert bighorn populations were brought back. But disease issues once again threaten desert bighorn populations. This time the competition and disease threats come from Barbary Sheep; an exotic ungulate also known as aoudad.  It will take developing creative management strategies to overcome these challenges.

About our speaker: Froylán has been with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for over 20 yrs, with the last 14 yrs serving as the Desert Bighorn Sheep Program Leader.  Prior to that, he was the Elephant Mountain WMA Assistant Area Manager, as well as the Area Wildlife Biologist.  He obtained his BS in Wildlife & Fisheries Science from Texas A&M University and MS in Range and Wildlife Management from Sul Ross State University.  With over 25 yrs of wildlife experience, Froylán has worked for natural resource agencies and conservation organizations including US Fish and Wildlife Service, Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, and the Texas A&M University – Wildlife Department.