"I think it's collectively our responsibility to make sure the bighorns that we have now ... are here to stay," a Texas Parks and Wildlife volunteer said
Seeing sheep flying through the sky in Texas may be less rare than one would think!
The Texas Parks and Wildlife shared a video on social media of a group of endangered desert bighorn sheep being airlifted safely across the sky by a helicopter to relocate them in an effort to help bolster their population.
"Today we are taking [the] surplus of animals off of Elephant Mountain and translocating them to the Franklin Mountains State Park to hopefully start another healthy, viable population there," said one of the rangers with the Texas Parks and Wildlife in the video. "Pretty exciting!"
Alongside captions of his words, the sheep -- wearing orange covers over their eyes -- could be seen in nets being transported in the air before being carried down by volunteers and assessed. The animals were cataloged before being put in trailers and transported to their new home.
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He then went on to detail the process, noting that when the "helicopter comes in," the rangers grab a sheep and "put them on the processing tables," "collect the tissues" and "put collars on them" before putting the creatures on "transport trailers."
"... It's high energy, high energy, lots of excitement," he said. "We got lots of folks, lots of partners here, lots of volunteers making this operation happen."
He continued, "I think it's collectively our responsibility to make sure the bighorns that we have now -- the big ones that we have now -- are here to stay and for the enjoyment of future generations."
As the sheep were led out to their new home, several bystanders could be seen taking videos and pictures of the herd running free. In their caption, the Texas Parks and Wildlife noted that the process was done to "restore this native Texan to its historic range."
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According to the National Wildlife Foundation, two species of bighorn sheep are native to North America and are identified by their "large, curved horns." The subspecies that was the focus of this relocation operation, the desert bighorn sheep, was classified as endangered in 2000, per the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
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There are only approximately 80,000 North American bighorn sheep on the continent currently -- much less than the between 150,000 and 200,000 that existed before the 1800's. Of that figure, there are only 13,000 desert bighorn sheep in North America total, per the National Park Service.
"By 1900, encroachment from human settlers diminished the population to several thousand," the National Wildlife Foundation said. "Bighorn sheep have made a comeback thanks to a conservation movement supported by President Theodore Roosevelt, reintroductions, national parks and managed hunting."