Efforts to recover Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis) throughout western North America have had limited success with the majority of current populations remaining in small and isolated areas on a fraction of their historical range. Prairie environments with rugged topography throughout the Northern Great Plains ecoregion were historically occupied by relatively robust bighorn sheep populations. We predicted there is likely unrealized potential habitat for restoring bighorn sheep to these areas; however, relatively little attention has been devoted to identifying habitat in unoccupied prairie regions. We used global positioning system (GPS)‐collar data collected from 43 female bighorn sheep in 2 populations located in the eastern Montana, USA, portion of the Northern Great Plains during 2014–2018 to estimate a population‐level annual resource selection model and identify the important factors affecting bighorn sheep resource selection. We extrapolated model predictions across eastern Montana's prairie region and identified potential habitat to understand restoration potential and assist with future translocations of bighorn sheep. Resource selection of bighorn sheep was most strongly associated with terrain slope and ruggedness, tree canopy cover, and a normalized difference vegetation index metric. Within currently unoccupied areas of the historical range, the model extrapolation predicted 7,211 km² of habitat, with most owned and managed by private landowners (44%), Bureau of Land Management (33%), and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (15%). Our results provide an empirical evaluation of landscape covariates influencing resource selection of bighorn sheep occupying prairie environments and provide a habitat model that may be generalizable to other areas in the Northern Great Plains ecoregion. We demonstrate substantial potential for restoration opportunities of bighorn sheep in the Northern Great Plains ecoregion. Broad restoration of bighorn sheep across the ecoregion would likely require strong collaboration among and between public resource managers, private landowners, and livestock producers given the heterogeneous land ownership patterns, management strategies, and domestic sheep distributions. © 2020 The Wildlife Society.

中文翻译：

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草原地区大角羊的恢复潜力

努力恢复落基山大角羊（Ovis canadensis canadensis）在整个北美西部地区取得的成功有限，目前的大多数人口仍留在偏远的偏远地区，只是其历史范围的一小部分。历史上，整个大平原北部生态区地势崎的草原环境被相对强大的大角羊种群所占据。我们预测，可能存在无法实现的大角羊恢复到这些地区的潜在栖息地。但是，人们对确定空旷的草原地区的栖息地的关注却很少。我们使用了全球定位系统（GPS）项圈数据，该数据是从位于美国蒙大纳州东部的2个种群中的43只雌性大角羊收集的，2014-2018年期间在北部大平原的部分地区进行评估，以估算人口水平的年度资源选择模型，并确定影响大角羊资源选择的重要因素。我们推断了蒙大拿州东部草原地区的模型预测，并确定了潜在的栖息地，以了解恢复潜力并协助将来大角羊的易位。大角羊的资源选择与地形坡度和崎，度，树冠覆盖度以及归一化差异植被指数度量最相关。在历史范围当前未占用的区域内，模型外推预测为7,211 km 草原地区并确定了潜在的栖息地，以了解其恢复潜力并协助将来大角羊的易位。大角羊的资源选择与地形坡度和崎，度，树冠覆盖度以及归一化差异植被指数度量最相关。在历史范围当前未占用的区域内，模型外推预测为7,211 km 草原地区并确定了潜在的栖息地，以了解其恢复潜力并协助大角羊的未来迁移。大角羊的资源选择与地形坡度和崎，度，树冠覆盖度以及归一化差异植被指数度量最相关。在历史范围当前未占用的区域内，模型外推预测为7,211 km²栖息地的面积，其中大部分由私人土地所有者拥有和管理（44％），土地管理局（33％）和美国鱼类和野生动物服务局（15％）。我们的结果提供了对影响草原大环境的大角羊资源选择的景观协变量的经验评估，并提供了可以推广到大平原北部生态区其他地区的栖息地模型。我们证明了在大平原北部生态区恢复大角羊的巨大潜力。考虑到不同的土地所有权模式，管理策略和家养羊的分布，整个生态区域中大角羊的广泛恢复可能需要公共资源管理者，私人土地所有者和牲畜生产者之间以及它们之间的强有力合作。©2020野生动物协会。