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Numerous races of the widespread bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) occur throughout much of western North America. Several of these are endangered or threatened because of habitat loss, hunting pressure, introduced diseases, or other problems. The Peninsular bighorn (O. c. cremnobates) is one of the rarest, now confined to parts of Baja California and some of the desert mountain ranges in southern California. They live in very harsh habitats (as shown here), often migrating up and down mountain ranges according to the season. During especially dry periods, they will eat barrel cactus (below, left), after knocking one over with their thornproof horns. Oddly, they are a fairly familiar sight in the densely-populated Palm Springs area of the Coachella Valley, often feeding on lawns and ornamental vegetaion in backyards (one municipality, Rancho Mirage, put up an extensive fencing system to keep the sheep out).
I photographed this group (mainly adult rams, a few juveniles) in the University of California's Deep Canyon reserve, south of Palm Desert. They were fairly confiding, but the group was wandering across a steep, rocky, cactus-studded hillside, which was not much fun to scramble over with a big lens. Peninsular bighorns are a distinct population of the more common desert bighorn, O. c. nelsoni. Images of the well-known and widely distributed Rocky Mountain bighorn are here. |
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