Big Horn Sheep – Superb Desert Dwellers

Big Horn Sheep Superb Desert Dwellers

Music

MJ: They’re superb desert dwellers. Probably been in North America for a few hundred thousand years.

JM: I am not a superb desert dweller. And yet here I was, in the company of biologist Mark Jorgensen, in the middle of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in Southern California, searching for Big Horn sheep. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

MJ: The big horn sheep come from wild sheep stock in central Asia. As they moved into the Rocky Mountains in the Sierra Nevada they adapted to those climates and those habitats and eventually they migrated all the way to the tip of Baja California and into the Sonoran Desert where if you weren’t adapted to extreme summer temperatures and severe dehydration, you didn’t survive.

JM: On this day, it’s about 106 degrees in the Anza Borrego Desert, which should qualify as an extreme summer temperature. The signs on the trail warn hikers not to enter the desert without at least a gallon of water handy. That big horn sheep can get by for extended periods of time without water on a day like this is remarkable.

MJ: A big horn sheep in this country can lose about thirty percent of its body weight in water. Say a ram starts out at two hundred pounds, by the time he gets dehydrated he’s maybe one hundred and sixty pounds and he comes into a desert water hole and you watch him and you think “Wow, this guy is sick. He’s not going to make it.” You can see his ribs and his hips. He takes a drink, maybe three or four gallons of water at one setting and his body actually absorbs that and he comes out looking like a completely different animal.

JM: When Mark Jorgensen said “Wow, this guy is not going to make it” it seemed to me he wasn’t just talking about the sheep. We’ll hear more of our adventures in the desert in future programs. Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.

Big Horn Sheep - Superb Desert Dwellers

Desert big horn sheep have adapted to withstand extreme dehydration with ease.
Air Date:09/20/2016
Scientist:
Transcript:

Big Horn Sheep Superb Desert Dwellers

Music

MJ: They're superb desert dwellers. Probably been in North America for a few hundred thousand years.

JM: I am not a superb desert dweller. And yet here I was, in the company of biologist Mark Jorgensen, in the middle of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in Southern California, searching for Big Horn sheep. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

MJ: The big horn sheep come from wild sheep stock in central Asia. As they moved into the Rocky Mountains in the Sierra Nevada they adapted to those climates and those habitats and eventually they migrated all the way to the tip of Baja California and into the Sonoran Desert where if you weren't adapted to extreme summer temperatures and severe dehydration, you didn't survive.

JM: On this day, it's about 106 degrees in the Anza Borrego Desert, which should qualify as an extreme summer temperature. The signs on the trail warn hikers not to enter the desert without at least a gallon of water handy. That big horn sheep can get by for extended periods of time without water on a day like this is remarkable.

MJ: A big horn sheep in this country can lose about thirty percent of its body weight in water. Say a ram starts out at two hundred pounds, by the time he gets dehydrated he's maybe one hundred and sixty pounds and he comes into a desert water hole and you watch him and you think "Wow, this guy is sick. He's not going to make it." You can see his ribs and his hips. He takes a drink, maybe three or four gallons of water at one setting and his body actually absorbs that and he comes out looking like a completely different animal.

JM: When Mark Jorgensen said "Wow, this guy is not going to make it" it seemed to me he wasn't just talking about the sheep. We'll hear more of our adventures in the desert in future programs. Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.