The First Translocation of Bighorn Sheep in California: A Critical Review of the Activities of William Franklin Frakes

Authors

Vernon C. Bleich, University of Nevada RenoFollow
Glenn W. Sudmeier, Society for the Conservation of Bighorn SheepFollow
Michael W. Wolter, California Department of Fish and GameFollow
Richard A. Weaver, California Department of Fish and Game

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Abstract

In the absence of verification, historical aspects of wildlife management or conservation sometimes have become established in the literature and persisted therein for decades; in other situations, serendipitous discoveries have corrected information that earlier had been treated as factual. In some cases, efforts to vet historical accounts have been ongoing for many years; such is the case involving William Franklin Frakes, an American rancher, naturalist, adventurer, and author, who captured and translocated bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) in California, USA, near the turn of the twentieth century. In this review, we provide information that substantiates the majority of Frakes’s activities, including newfound evidence that he attempted to capture bighorn sheep in heretofore undisclosed locations. We relied on his articles that appeared in turn-of-the-century sporting magazines, his extensive correspondence with respected individuals and organizations active in wildlife conservation at that time, information published in the scientific and popular literature, interviews with local historians or authorities, and our personal knowledge of the geographic areas traversed by Frakes. We provide strong evidence that he captured bighorn sheep in the Avawatz Mountains and substantial support for the notion that he released at least some of those animals, and possibly hybrids between them and domestic sheep, near the west end of the Bullion Mountains, a location that heretofore has escaped critical scrutiny. We further discuss the implications of his activities in the context of the potential for disease transmission, the subsequent dynamics of bighorn sheep inhabiting the Bullion Mountains and surrounding ranges, metapopulation function, and the possibility that the genetic structure of bighorn sheep occupying that range was altered by Frakes’s actions. All of these have implications for understanding the historical influence of anthropogenic activities on bighorn sheep >100 years ago. We also include an appendix comprising information discovered during our research, but that we have been unable to substantiate or that otherwise is of interest.

Recommended Citation

Bleich, Vernon C.; Sudmeier, Glenn W.; Wolter, Michael W.; and Weaver, Richard A. (2023) "The First Translocation of Bighorn Sheep in California: A Critical Review of the Activities of William Franklin Frakes," Human–Wildlife Interactions: Vol. 17: Iss. 3, Article 13.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26077/b09c-2ee3
Available at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/hwi/vol17/iss3/13