Nevada Department of Wildlife game biologist Ed Partee carries a young desert bighorn sheep in November 2011 during a capture and transplant operation in the Pine Forest Range of northwest Nevada. Partee, who has spent much of his career working to rebuild bighorn populations, was given the grim task earlier this year of tracking and recovering bighorn carcasses after the state decided to slaughter one herd to try to stop the spread of deadly disease to a neighboring herd.

Kim Toulouse / Nevada Department of Wildlife / Reno Gazette via AP

Nevada Department of Wildlife game biologist Ed Partee carries a young desert bighorn sheep in November 2011 during a capture and transplant operation in the Pine Forest Range of northwest Nevada. Partee, who has spent much of his career working to rebuild bighorn populations, was given the grim task earlier this year of tracking and recovering bighorn carcasses after the state decided to slaughter one herd to try to stop the spread of deadly disease to a neighboring herd.