Sheep don’t socially distance well

Here we see CMI director, Jeremy Ayotte, swabbing Big Horn Sheep for infectious diseases and parasites that are easily spread from domestic to wild sheep populations. The work relies on a significant amount of helicopter support, an expensive and challenging way to manage pneumonia in wild sheep – if only the sheep knew to socially distance from their domestic cousins (or people kept distance between domestic sheep farms and wild sheep ranges). Are you seeing any parallels in your work to the current COVID19 pandemic?

For more information about Jeremy’s work, see here and here

PHOTO: Peter Gutsche