ELKHORN, Wis. (AP)--An animal resembling a wild bighorn sheep that has been evading capture by Walworth County animal officials may have made itself at home on a couple's farm.

Officials have been trying to identify the animal and want to move it to a safe environment away from roads, likely near the mountains or in a zoo.

But Alan Hayden said the animal described in the local paper recently may be the very beast that he and his wife have been feeding corn and snacks near their barn in Sugar Creek Township, north of Elkhorn.

"I thought, 'Wow! This sounds like our goat/sheep thing,'" he said.

The Lakeland Animal Shelter has been trying to catch the animal, nicknamed by local residents Big Al, since it was spotted on a highway several months ago, said humane officer Cindy Wrobel.

"I have seen him, and I have chased him," she said. "He is big, and he is fast."

She said that she plans to renew the chase March 7.

"If we can get somebody to dart him, that is something I want to do," she said March 5. "We want to move him anywhere that is safe for him and where he belongs."

Game Warden Tim Price said he has been trying to photograph Big Al to have a wildlife biologist at the state Department of Natural Resources identify it.

Bighorn sheep are a type of wild mountain sheep that live in western North America, according to Encyclopedia Americana.

Hayden said he and his wife Caryn began feeding corn to the animal after the first big snowfall around Thanksgiving.

"He's domesticated to some extent," he said.

Date: 3/23/05