This is what I saw today.
-- Badtux the Migratory Penguin
3 days ago
Saturday, October 27, 2007
6 comments:
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And a mountain ram has exactly what to do with migratory waterfowl?
ReplyDeletewow tux! those critters are shy, and rare. you are one lucky formally attired birdie.
ReplyDeletebbc, perhaps it's because they leave the water foul...
ReplyDeleteBeeb, the migratory waterfowl was myself, not the bighorn.
ReplyDeleteMB, I actually saw *two* of them on this trip, on opposite sides of a large dry lake (about 45 miles apart, i.e., unlikely the same critter). Unfortunately when I tried to take a picture of the second one, my camera flashed "No Memory Card" because, duh, I'd taken it out to upload the photo of the first one to the Internet! By the time I fumbled it back into the camera, all I had a chance to do was photograph the butt of the second one. Sigh.
SB, what leaves the water foul is those #$%@ burros. They've turned many a spring in the Upper Mojave into a burro mud wallow. The bleeding hearts cry and moan and groan at the notion of turning these non-native pest animals into dogfood as would be ecologically appropriate, thus they are allowed to continue breeding and forcing out the bighorns, which are increasingly rare and endangered.
The big horns aren't rare in nevada. I see them all the time.
ReplyDeleteThere is a heard of about 15 to 20 just 15 minutes west of Las Vegas.
And another heard of 25 up around Beatty when they show themselves.
These animals live up in the rocks and burros have very little effect on their survival. Too much hunting has done more damage to the population of the desert bighorn than any burro ever did.
What is interesting is that the two bighorn that I saw were both alone, not part of a herd. I had thought that they were herd animals and that the only time you would see one alone would be if it were sick and/or dying.
ReplyDeleteJMT, the problem is that water is rare in the desert, and when the burros ruin water sources, the bighorn suffer also. I will show you a photo of what was once a prestine spring that is now a burro mud wallow next time I make it out that way (I didn't take a photo this time, I was too disgusted).