Hail the Queen

[Nanno]

Oh I'm fascinated by herd dynamics! It's one of the most interesting aspects of owning goats. It's something I keep thinking about in regards to bighorn sheep as well. Two pneumonia outbreaks occurred in two different isolated herds in 2018 after bighorns were removed to populate other herds. The ones that were removed were ok apparently, but the ones that remained got sick. I wondered if it had anything to do with the stress of having the herd dynamics change drastically in a short period of time. If bighorn herd structure is anything like goat herd structure, destroying several matriarchies could have devastating effects on the rest of the herd. If they get sick and more animals die, it would disrupt things even further and the herd may not recover. I asked around and apparently no wildlife biologists have considered this as a possible trigger for pneumonia outbreaks.