The Great Salt Lake’s largest island has long served as a big-game sanctuary as well as one of Utah’s most popular state parks. Chronic low lake levels, however, have turned Antelope — and other islands in the lake — into mere peninsulas, allowing bison and, potentially, bighorn sheep to reach the mainland.
Some also fear the reverse: that the big game’s domestic disease-carrying cousins could get to the island.
For several years, buffaloes have, at times, invaded the mainland. But the consequences for Antelope Island’s bighorn herd have been more dire, prompting state officials to call for 10 miles of fencing around the island’s south end.