Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep gained endangered status Monday, eight months after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had given the species a temporary, emergency listing. An estimated 125 bighorns remain in the 400-mile-long Sierra Nevada range, less than half the population of 15 years ago. The bighorn herds have been devastated by hunting, domestic sheep diseases, and mountain lion predation. The April emergency listing gave the USFWS the authority to kill mountain lions to protect bighorns, even though the lions are protected from hunting by a 1990 California ballot measure, and Monday’s action extends that authority.
