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Article: Up against steep odds. (Peninsular bighorn sheep)(includes related article on Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep)
- Article from:
- National Wildlife
- Article date:
- February 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 National Wildlife Federation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In a cluster of small mountain ranges in the California desert, bighorn sheep face plagues, drought, loss of land and even lions
Already the temperature is rising fast, at barely eight o'clock on a summer morning in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. By afternoon, this part of southeastern California will climb well past 100 degrees. A small band of desert bighorn ewes and lambs lingers along the lower slope of a sunbaked canyon. One ewe approaches a barrel cactus and butts it with her horns, breaking it open, then eats the watery pulp within. Other ewes cluster around her, waiting their turn for the vital water source. Ten yards away, in the shade of a rock outcrop, the ...