06/26/2026
Two bighorn sheep arrived at the Racine Zoo in February. Now there are four.
Helga and Mantis - both born in 2023 at Hemker Park and Zoo in Minnesota - are the newest residents of the zoo's freshly renovated Mountain exhibit. If you noticed the construction over the past year and guessed new animals were coming, you were right. And then some.
Mantis welcomed a baby on May 12. Helga followed with one of her own on May 20. The Mountain is officially a full house.
Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep are the largest sheep native to North America, once numbering around 200,000 in the mid-1800s before hunting, habitat loss, and disease from domesticated animals took their toll. Their population has since stabilized, but every new arrival still matters.