bighornsheepphotoTHUMBBISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – North Dakota will not have a bighorn sheep hunting season this year for the first time in more than three decades.
 
     The state Game and Fish Department is making the move because of the deaths of dozens of sheep last year in the western Badlands due to bacterial pneumonia in the herd. Most of the sheep had been transplanted from Alberta, Canada, about a year ago.
 
     State wildlife officials said the wild sheep likely were infected by domestic sheep, though sheep ranchers questioned that theory.
 

     The last time North Dakota did not have a bighorn sheep hunting season was 1983. Game and Fish Wildlife Chief Jeb Williams says a summer survey of the bighorn population might help determine when hunting can resume.