Mountain sheep (Ovis canadensis) in California have been protected from hunting by legislative action since 1878, although enforcement only began about 1920. Since 1920, about 30% of the populations have disappeared. This loss represents about one half of the total populations lost since the gold rush began in 1849, and suggests that protection has done little to slow population loss. Instead, legislative protection of sheep in California has worked against their conservation in that few funds were allocated to the species by the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG). A data base adequate to use selected populations as reintroduction stock has developed only in the past decade. State designation of the California subspecies (0. c. californiana) as rare helped set the stage for the initiation of a DFG reintroduction program in 1979. To date, 273 sheep have been trapped from four mountain ranges for relocations to ten sites in eight mountain ranges. Legislation was passed in 1986 that will permit very limited hunting of mountain sheep in California. This legislation was designed to help fund continuing conservation efforts for this species.
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