A heap of sheep

In the domestic sheep world, there’s a phenomenon woolgrowers fear known as a “crush.” It occurs when a frightened flock tries to take refuge in the comfort of each other and it doesn’t go well.

Don’t underestimate the hazard of a sheep crush. 

In 2013, a crush claimed 119 lambs and 57 ewes in the mountains south of Victor, Idaho, after wolves caused a flock of 2,400 to stampede. The wolves didn’t directly kill the sheep — they just spooked sheep that in turn asphyxiated each other in a sheep-on-sheep heap. Nevertheless, the wolves paid for the sheep crush: Federal trappers killed 13 wolves from the former Pine Creek Pack as a result. 

A flock of sheep grazing Wednesday in the Bridger Mountains stood in a heap, but certainly not a crush, as a caravan of journalists, land managers, rangeland experts and ranchers passed by while touring the cheatgrass-filled fire scar leftover from 2025’s explosive Red Canyon wildfire.

More curious than frightened, the freshly shorn ewes barely broke from browsing to look up at the humans passing by.