The North Dakota Game and Fish Department allocated five bighorn sheep licenses for the 2026 hunting season. This includes one auction license and four lottery licenses, three fewer than 2025.
“The reduction in hunting licenses should not be regarded as bad news for the state’s population of bighorn sheep,” said Brett Wiedmann, department big game biologist. “On the contrary, our population is at record levels and doing very well, but we like to harvest rams that are 8 years and older and the number of harvestable, mature rams is down due primarily to four consecutive years of poor lamb recruitment from 2015 to 2018.”
The total number of licenses does not include the potential for an additional tribal license issued to a North Dakota resident per a memorandum of understanding with Three Affiliated Tribes Fish and Wildlife. This would be the second of three licenses granted in the MOA.
In total, 22,739 applicants applied for bighorn sheep. Successful applicants have been notified.
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