Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Big Horn Sheep

There have been several reports on this forum of Big Horn Sheep sightings in the White Mountains. Here with some information regarding the Sierra Nevada and the Desert (includes White Mountains) Big Horns:

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/Bighorn/Desert/

http://www.wmrs.edu/resources/reference%...ntains/ch22.pdf

http://sierrabighorn.org/

There are a few differences between the Sierra Nevada and Desert Big horns, but mostly regarding their horn formation.

If any of you spot them, anywhere, report your sighting to California Fish and Wildlife - especially if they are tagged animals. In the Sierra's they are starting to move around quite a bit.

I've seen lots of Desert Bighorns over the past 10 years in their primary range, but never on the western side of US395. I didn't realize that a "variant" of the Desert Bighorn also inhabits the eastern slopes of the Sierra, at least if the map is accurate. The bighorn sheep I've seen in the Sierra were always the Rocky Mtn Bighorn variety, which is a much larger sheep with the spiral rack. There's a herd of 10-20 Rocky Mtn Bighorns I've seen on more than one occasion on Langley's slopes and shoulders.

I saw about 20 desert bighorns in Zion NP recently, not far from the highway, not too far from it's eastern entrance, not too far from Lake Powell.

We ran in to a bunch of them on the way to White Mountain, early this week, via the Silver Canyon road, before the steep uphill part.






Then ,on the hike to the top we spotted this one, all by it's lonesome, before the top.

I would think it particularly important, or at least interesting, to report these sightings. The two ewes and four lambs are pretty impressive, and that loner, which I think is also unusual, appears to be sporting the latest in electronic fashion accessories.