A Peninsular bighorn sheep was found dead after becoming entangled in razor wire installed along the California-Mexico border in Imperial County, according to wildlife biologist Christina Aiello. The discovery, made during a hike in Jacumba Wilderness, has ren
On a Wednesday morning hike through Imperial County’s rugged Jacumba Wilderness, wildlife biologist Christina Aiello expected to look at the desert the way she always does—through the paths of the animals she tracks.
Instead. she came across an adult male Peninsular bighorn sheep embedded in razor wire. its neck and curved horns caught in bladed coils. with the front legs also wrapped in the barrier. Photos and a video Aiello provided show the decomposing animal tangled in the wire in a desert landscape dotted with boulders.
“It’s frustrating and sad but at the same time expected,” Aiello said shortly after her discovery. “Because we literally said that this was the risk, this was likely to happen, and our concerns were kind of ignored.”
The wire Aiello believes contributed to the death is part of a broader security effort along the California-Mexico border. Starting last fall, federal forces began stringing hundreds of miles of concertina wire in the region. President Trump has vowed to complete the border wall during his second term. and some conservationists have speculated the wire is serving as a placeholder before remaining gaps in the wall get filled in.
A spokesperson for the Joint Task Force-Southern Border. which provides military support to border operations. said the wire was “part of a necessary. strategic effort to bolster this security by discouraging and preventing illicit movement across this border.” The spokesperson also said the wire’s design makes it easier for people and animals to see. “acts as a better deterrent for people. ” and “helps prevent animals from accidentally running into the wire or misjudging a jump.” In a statement. the spokesperson said the large coils are rigid and “don’t sag over time like single-strand wires. ” which they said helps “reduce the risk of accidental wildlife entanglement.”.
The question of the bighorn’s death has quickly collided with jurisdictional buck-passing. Becky Farmer, a spokesperson for the U.S. Northern Command. which oversees the Joint Task Force. told the public that questions should be directed to the Department of Homeland Security because it directed the Department of Defense to install the wire. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an arm of Homeland Security, did not respond by time of publication.
Aiello’s concerns were not theoretical. Edie Harmon. who has documented border wall activity in the Jacumba Wilderness since 2020. said in early November that she learned Marines were stringing wire in an area called Skull Valley. Harmon alerted stakeholders. including Aiello. who was immediately worried about how the wire might affect a herd of bighorn sheep that migrates across the border.
The life cycle is part of what makes the habitat so fragile: the ewes give birth on the U.S. side in winter and spring, then cross into Mexico to seek water in the summer. Aiello fears that if movement is disrupted this year, the sheep could be blocked from the water they rely on. The entanglement risk is another threat entirely.
In January. Aiello submitted comments on behalf of more than two dozen organizations and individuals to Customs and Border Protection describing those concerns. They requested measures to protect the sheep. including removing the wire and putting in openings in the wall large enough for the sheep to pass through.
Aiello said border officials rejected these ideas. while signaling “tentative support” for watering holes for bighorn. small wildlife passages in the wall. and floodgates to be left open during storms. Advocates argue the passages would not be large enough for bighorn with broad horns to squeeze through.
In January, a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said the agency is “committed to environmental stewardship,” while meeting operational requirements, including physical barriers “along all areas deemed necessary to ensure operational control of the border.”
There is also a history of some officials advocating for practical accommodations. Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino—described as once the face of Trump’s deportation push—has a fondness for the sheep and advocated for adding a watering hole in the past. according to emails obtained by the Times.
This spring, several temporary water sources were installed, in an effort led by state and federal wildlife officials, Aiello said. She said she helped out as a volunteer. Those water sources could be a lifeline for sheep that might end up stuck on the U.S. side once the border wall is sealed.
The federal government agencies that would oversee wildlife protections were not available for comment. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife did not respond to requests for comment.
Aiello’s own monitoring adds urgency. She has tracked GPS-collared sheep—less than 10% of the population—to study how they respond to the razor wire. She said she has seen some animals mill around when they encounter the wire before turning around, while others cross over.
“That’s why I was kind of prompted to go check it out,” she said. “I’m like, are they jumping over?”
She hiked out to just beyond the Valley of the Moon trail, where the wire winds through piles of boulders. That was where she found the dead bighorn ram. She did not have a necropsy kit for a detailed assessment. but said there wasn’t much blood. which might indicate it suffered severe gashes and died from blood loss.
Aiello said it appears to have died several weeks earlier, and she is not sure whether it tried to jump the wire or simply grazed nearby. She said the ram looked healthy and that its strength “might have been its downfall,” adding that as it struggled, it likely got caught more and more.
For Aiello, the discovery is a warning sign rather than an isolated tragedy. She expects more of its kind could suffer similar fates if nothing changes. Her group has provided border officials with the locations where bighorn typically cross. and she said she believes the wire should be removed at least from those areas if officials are unwilling to remove it all.
She also questioned another option being planned for the area: a bollard fence. Aiello believes it will prove just as damaging over time.
“It’s going to take a while for those effects to unfold, whereas with the razor wire there’s going to be immediate death,” she said.
Peninsular bighorn sheep razor wire concertina wire Jacumba Wilderness Imperial County Christina Aiello Wildlands Network U.S.-Mexico border wildlife passages border wall