A new project update was released on 3/21/2014 (update page) – I thought the two most interesting details were:
- The assertion that the Mountain Lion killed in early March “was responsible for preying on 3 other sheep”
- The report ending statement that “This reintroduction effort has been designed around an adaptive management approach—meaning that instead of sticking to an initial plan no matter what happens, ongoing analysis of events and conditions will inform future management actions. It may be that under some circumstances, relatively few sheep losses will be cause for ending the effort; it may also be that under different circumstances, relatively high losses in the first or second year will not jeopardize successful restoration or be cause for ending the project” – this sentiment has been asserted several times, but the strong statements that the next release of sheep will go forward seems at least slightly at odds with this stated flexibility…