Would be nice if more people actually cared about the inherent value of biodiversity, instead of wanting an animal back from the brink just so they can shoot it. I feel like so many eco issues have to be framed in a "What's in it for me?" manner before most people care.

Doesn't sound like recreational hunting will be very good for this population. I wish wildlife agencies would give species even more time to rebuild before (if ever) they start issuing permits at a premium.

Apparently Texans have a tradition of introducing hoofed animals for the purpose of having something worthwhile to hunt.  (But they have plenty of company.)  Such hunting seems to me unnecessary and purely recreational and therefore unethical.  I allow, though, that it is possible there is another way to understand the matter.

At least in the case of the bighorn sheep, an animal native to this region of west Texas was reintroduced, and is thriving, so that is a clear derived benefit.

But Texans, and others, have introduced exotic animals from Africa and Asia, presumably to hunt them; in a few cases the exotics have thrived, which is good for them, but is unlikely to be good for their new ecological neighborhood.  The gemsbok, or oryx, a stunningly beautiful desert antelope from Africa and the Arabian peninsula, has been so successful establishing itself around White Sands National Monument in New Mexico as to be considered a nuisance.  The blackbuck, an elegant, spiral-horned antelope from India, is apparently free-ranging over much of Texas.  The smallish, subtly antlered sika deer, from Japan, has established itself in Texas, as well as Wisconsin, Virginia and Pennsylvania.  (Why anyone would want to introduce an exotic deer to the latter states is rather hard to understand.)  There are populations of the aoudad, or barbary sheep, from the Atlas Mountains of North Africa, with handsome horns and profile, in California, New Mexico and the Texas panhandle.  And there are a number of other interesting examples.

(How does that old song go, Amazing?:

"Way out in the west Texas town of El Paso, /
I fell in love with a Mexican maid ... "

Which I suppose is a bit more family-friendly than falling in love with, say, a Mexican poolboy.)

Chickens are our cousins! So are other sensitive animals! Enough is enough! No more factory farms!