Invasive sheep species impacting Palo Duro Canyon’s natural wildlife

CANYON, Texas (KFDA) - Palo Duro Canyon State Park is seeing a rise in numbers of an invasive sheep species that is creating a threat to its natural wildlife.

The Barbary sheep were brought over from Africa in the 1950s for the purpose of exotic hunting and made their way into the region in the 90s.

An invasive species is any plant or animal that reproduces quickly and has no known predators.

“They bring diseases and viruses with them, and that is something they can share within their population to big horn sheep, for example, or even the deer, the whitetail and mule deer as well,” said PDC Trail and Resources Manager Haley Richardson.

According to Palo Duro Canyon State Park officials, the Barbary sheep are considered a threat to native deer due to overeating of their food source and diseases not common in North America.

“They actually have a pretty negative impact to our mule deer population, as well as the whitetail deer population. They out-compete, and what I mean is out compete is they eat a lot more of the resources,” said Richardson.

Palo Duro officials say they’re taking action to remove or reduce the number of sheep through private hunts and herding to different locations.