K i d  C r e a t i o n s

Bighorn Sheep

Bighorn sheep are threatened and on the brink of becoming an endangered animal. Why did this happen? Should we care?

For this essay about bighorn sheep, the students in Suzan Clausen's Ecology Club teamed up with resource ecologist Mark Jorgensen. Together, they studied the peninsular bighorn sheep that live in Anza-Borrego State Park, near San Diego, California USA.

Bighorn sheep are an animal which many people enjoy watching. There are several varieties of bighorn in the United States: the Desert Bighorn in the West, the Rocky Mountain Bighorn, and Dall Sheep in Alaska. In California there are three subspecies of Bighorn: the Peninsular Bighorn, Nelson's Bighorn, and the California Bighorn.

The Peninsular Desert Bighorn Sheep, borrego in Spanish, is San Diego County's official animal. These bighorns have short hair which is light gray to grayish brown, except around their stomachs and rump, where it is creamy white. Their tails are about four inches long. Full-grown rams weigh between 180 and 240 pounds, while adult ewes can weigh 105 to 140 pounds. Bighorn hoofs are specially adapted to climb on rocky desert hillsides. Their bodies are so well insulated from the heat that they can lie down on summer scorched rocks whose temperatures are hot enough to cook meat. Bighorns have binocular vision. Their sight is among the most powerful of any mammal, about eight times more powerful than the human eye. They can see a person walking in the desert from more than a mile away.

© 1997 The Special Species Project ®