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Desert Bighorn Sheep

Ovis canadensis nelsoni

Photo by EmilyMarino
Published on Project Noah
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39.0492, -108.698

Field Notes

Description:

Desert bighorn sheep are heavy-bodied sheep. Brownish in color with white rumps. Desert Bighorn tend to have longer legs and thiner tightly curved horns compared to their larger stockier mountain relatives. They can also go for longer periods of time without drinking water.

Habitat:

High Mountain Desert around 5,000 ft. containing rocky sandstone cliffs and formations.

Notes:

For over a year I have tried to catch a glimpse of the Desert Bighorn Sheep, a threatened subspecie of the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep. Yesterday, I caught a glimpse of a Mother and lamb and today I finally got some great shots of a couple males!

Loss of grazing habitat and disease from domestic livestock have devastated desert bighorn sheep populations. This has been a once in a lifetime treat for me!

Reference Links:

Desert bighorn sheep

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (25)
AntónioGinjaGinja
Great capture Emily,beautiful series,congrats on the well deserved SOTD and thanks for sharing
EmilyMarino
Thank you Dilan Chathuranga and LaurenZarate!
LaurenZarate
Congratulations Emily, a very beautiful spotting!
EmilyMarino
I couldn't agree more armadeus.4! Thank you for the kind words!
Liana
Congratulations on SOTD and I'm so glad your patience has been so wonderfully rewarded :)
rams4d
Congrats, excellent pictures.
EmilyMarino
Thank you so much PN! I still love being a part of this community so much! So glad to be surrounded by other animal lovers that can appreciate the largest and smallest organisms on our incredible planet!
KarenL
Congrats Emily, your well-named desert bighorn sheep is our spotting of the day! Bighorn sheep used to roam North American in the millions, but by 1900 their numbers had plummeted to just a few thousand. Thanks to reintroductions and the establishment of the national parks, they have made a comeback in recent years. Facebook: https://upload.facebook.com/projectnoah/photos/a.10150595289465603.674700.10150120463815603/10154442294680603/?type=1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/projectnoah/status/496496542895706112
Mark Ridgway
Fantastic Emily. Your perseverance has paid off. Great spotting.. congratulations. The sequence is great too. "Ok, there's someone with a camera.... where's my escape route... yep I can easily run down there!"
EmilyMarino
Thank you Searra, they are amazing creatures. So resilient! As for my favorite bird of prey, that is an easy one for me, surprisingly! My favorite raptor is the amazingly adaptable red-tailed hawk! They are found all over North America and can thrive in environments from the desert to the swamp to the forested mountains to our large cities! They come is so many amazing color varieties and subspecies too! What about you?
EmilyMarino
Thank you Sunny and Luis! We hiked in some very remote areas of the desert today. I was almost certain we would see more but never did. It made this mornings spotting even more special!
EmilyMarino
Thank you all! It was a special morning to be able to even see these beauties, let alone photograph them!
Maria dB
Congratulations on achieving your goal, Emily, and for sharing your spotting of this threatened species.

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PublishedAugust 3, 2014

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