June 2012 scshview_2012-06.pdf - Sun City Shadow Hills

6
In Your Backyard…
Desert Bighorn Sheep
Rosie was a bighorn sheep that
frequented Landmark Golf Course.
The golfers would often share their
sandwich with her. This caused what
we call “imprinting.” Rosie began
to prefer hanging out with people
instead of her own kind.
Management at the golf course
worried that Rosie might kick a child
or butt someone, so one day a truck
arrived and animal control workers
took her way up into the hills, so she
would be with the other bighorn
sheep again. Then a few months
later Rosie showed up in a parking
lot by Circuit City in Rancho
Mirage. It was a wonder she wasn’t
hit by a car.
Something had to be done. She
was taken to The Living Desert;
and it was decided that, if Rosie
wouldn’t stay in the hills, maybe she
could play an important role in the
education department so visitors
could learn more about endangered
species.
And that’s where Rosie was when
I met her. She ate from my hand and
looked up at me with her big blue
eyes, and it was love at first sight.
Because the animals at The Living
Desert don’t have to forage for their
food and don’t come in contact with
predators, they usually live much
longer there than they would in the
wild. Rosie’s life expectancy was about
8 years, but she ended up living for
14 and died peacefully in her sleep,
and I cried when I heard she’d died.
BY CAROL DEROSSETT
What’s this? I’m crying over a
bighorn sheep? But Rosie wasn’t
your run-of-the-mill sheep. She was
special. She let me pet her. She won
many over with her charm.
The desert bighorn sheep is one of
four hoofed animals in our Sonoran
Desert. Many live the mountains of
Arizona. Some also live in our
mountains above the Coachella V
alley. They are well adapted to live in
this arid environment because they
can eat plants as a source of their
moisture and, secondly, they have
enlarged stomach compartments
that can store water to last for several
days. They can also drink 20 percent
of their body weight (up to two
gallons) in just a few minutes at a
watering hole. And when the green
plants have dried up, they eat cactus
fruit for moisture.
A bighorn’s hooves are specialized
to enable it to run and climb to get
away from its predators. Bighorns
feel more protected in the steep,
inaccessible terrain of canyon walls
and rugged terrain. To stay cool,
they simply look for a shady spot to
lie down. Brains are sensitive to heat,
so desert bighorn sheep have
evaporative cooling in their nasal
passages, resulting in a cooling of
blood vessels that go to the brain.
These animals socialize in herds,
benefiting as individuals as many
eyes watch for predators. Many
mammals burrow into the earth to
stay cool in our hot desert, but
bighorns will find a cool spot in the
shade and then just be inactive
during the hot day.
Both males and females have
horns. The ewes have narrow horns
that only grow to be about 12 inches
long and have about a half a curl,
while the males have wide, massive
horns with a full curl. These horns
can weigh up to 40 pounds.
Bighorns have declined in numbers
mainly due to human encroachment.
Adding additional watering holes
in our mountains can help these
animals survive. They generally
breed in August and September. The
males will butt heads for dominance,
and it is said that you can actually
hear the crack of their butting heads
over a mile away.
The females leave the herd to have
their lambs around February and
return to the herd about a week
later. The lambs imprint the spot
where they were born, and then they
try to return to that spot when they
are ready to drop a lamb of their
own.
Several years ago we had a
pneumonia epidemic that was killing
our bighorns. We worried about
their survival. A couple of springs
later, I was on a bus tour heading up
Highway 74 when we spotted a herd
of 14. We were delighted to see two
lambs among the herd, so we knew
then they were back.
June 2012 Tune in to Channel 98 · Log on to www.scshca.com