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  • And Then There Were None: The Demise of Desert Bighorn Sheep in the Pusch Ridge Wilderness by Paul R. Krausman
  • Bill Broyles
And Then There Were None: The Demise of Desert Bighorn Sheep in the Pusch Ridge Wilderness. By Paul R. Krausman. Foreword by William W. Shaw. Illustrations by Bethann Garramon Merkle. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2017. Pp. 248. $65.00 hardcover)

Desert bighorn sheep were so numerous in Tucson's Catalina Mountains during the 1980s that the public used to bring spotting scopes to the Circle K on Oracle Road and watch them by the hour from the parking lot. And before sprawling subdivisions and condominiums blanketed the foothills and surrounded Pusch Ridge on three sides, these charismatic animals left the cliffs to browse far down the bajadas—as recently as the 1960s bighorn were seen along the Rillito where Tucson Mall stands today.

Then, by the late 1990s, observers could not spot them anywhere on the mountain. There were none. Why? Puzzled experts made lists of why the bighorn "left" and then studied each notion. Were hikers and their dogs disturbing the bighorn? How about predators, brushy undergrowth, lack of water, or diseases passed from domestic livestock or other ungulates? Did new homes and roadways cut off sheep from essential forage?

One of those experts, Paul Krausman, was in the thick of the discussion from the beginning, and no one is better positioned to tell this timely story. He and his University of Arizona students and colleagues—including Bill Shaw, who wrote the introduction—launched studies and published a basketful of papers on both the biology and the sometimes-contentious [End Page 76] issues. As one would expect from an eminent author of numerous articles and books on bighorn and wildlife management, Krausman's account is exceptionally thorough, thoughtful, and revealing, giving us an insider's look at the art, science, and politics of wildlife management. Biologists still are not sure why the bighorn left or died out, but human disturbances from a growing city and an outdated forest-fire policy top the list. Bighorn prefer grassy, open patches next to steep slopes where they can be watchful and escape from humans or predators, but shrubs and trees were closing in on the naturally nervous sheep.

Likely your city, too, has asked, "where have the wild animals gone?" And Then There Were None is the latest in an alarming line of laments asking why we have so few bison, grizzlies, wolves, antelope, or condors, but Krausman's story should give you hope—although the issues are complicated, they are not intractable. Too, you'll be happy to know that other bighorn have been trucked in, and sheep again roam the mountain.

Krausman admirably fulfills his goals for the book, including a timely and much-needed discussion of society's role in maintaining and fostering healthy herds on our mountains. If we are going to keep even these bighorn and the few lions we do have, we must learn to live with, not against, wildlife. But society's role can generate public debate, and did in the Catalinas. Although the bighorn exhibit at the internationally acclaimed Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a perennial crowd favorite, state game agents seemed a bit surprised by how many citizens also appreciate mountain lions and complained every time the agency shot dead a big cat that had the audacity to eat one of the agency's transplanted sheep. They should have known. Ancient Native American petroglyphs show that while bighorn have earned special appeal far back into history, the 'glyphs show that mountain lions have, too. More discussion of this predator-prey tension of one totem animal versus another would have been helpful in the book, as would the non-hunting public's role in decisions about wildlife.

Overall, Krausman has delivered a shining summary of bighorn biology and a logical narrative of how they were returned to the Catalina Mountains. Foremost, Krausman reminds us that our skills and resources matter only if we have the will to act: "Desert bighorn sheep belong there [on the mountain], and it will enhance our humanity and human spirit to do all...

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