OVIS (Organización Vida Silvestre)
Conservación del Borrego Cimarrón y UMA El Plomito
Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico
Certified through 2025
Project Name
Project Type
Bighorn Sheep- El Plomito
Mammals
About the Program
Organización Vida Silvestre (OVIS) leads a bighorn sheep conservation project on over 10,000 hectares of the Sonoran Desert in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. The area is dominated by two distinct types of scrubland plant communities and multiple other species that benefit from the conservation project. The OVIS team engages in both reintroduction/release of individuals as well as population management including hunting goats and cattle that compete with the sheep for resources. The project began in 1996, with the collaboration of Wildlife AC and SEMARNAT.
Practices and Impacts
Organización Vida Silvestre (OVIS) leads a bighorn sheep conservation project on over 10,000 hectares of the Sonoran Desert in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. The area is dominated by two distinct types of scrubland plant communities and multiple other species that benefit from the conservation project. The OVIS team engages in both reintroduction/release of individuals as well as population management including hunting goats and cattle that compete with the sheep for resources. The project began in 1996, with the collaboration of Wildlife AC and SEMARNAT.
Practices and Impacts
- At the beginning of the project, obstacles such as poaching, predation and movement barriers were identified and addressed. Enclosures were set up to allow breeding safe from predators, and individuals raised in the enclosures adapt and are eventually released to the surrounding protected land.
- Since the creation of UMA El Plomito, which began with 21 individuals, the bighorn sheep population in the reserve has reached an estimated 200 individuals. Eleven sheep were also reintroduced into their native wildlife habitat from the reserve in summer 2022.
