Big Horn Sheep – Cliff Dwellers

Big Horn Sheep Cliff Dwellers

Music; Ambience: Desert footsteps

JM: Big Horn Sheep are supremely adapted to a desert environment. They’re able to survive for prolonged periods of time without water, they’ve got keen eyesight to keep an eye out for predators, and their built for a vertical escape strategy. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

JM: We’re in Southern California’s Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, in a narrow canyon surrounded by steep cliffs.

MJ: In fact in big horn biology we call that escape terrain, anything that’s steep is what they want to escape into.

JM: Mark Jorgenson is a retired State Park Superintendent.

MJ: They have excellent adaptations for that. Relative to other wild sheep in the world, their legs are shorter and stockier. Their hooves are very large and they have a tough outer hoof but the inner part of their hoof on the bottom is like hard callus. They’re excellent at gripping rocks in steep terrain. So, when you look at who their predators are, mostly mountain lions and coyotes in this part of the world, they’re probably better more adept at moving through that rough terrain. A lot of the old world sheep are more open country runners. They’re longer legged and rather than just run to the steepest terrain, they will see danger and they will put a mile or two between you and them very quickly.

JM: But the big horn sheep with its body lower to the ground, with its stock, powerful legs, will climb to escape a predator. They can scale a vertical rock wall in an instant.

JM:We’ll hear more on tracking desert big horn sheep in future programs. Our thanks to the California Environmental Legacy Project at Sacramento State University. Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.

Big Horn Sheep - Cliff Dwellers

If a desert big horn sheep feels threatened, it's all uphill from there.
Air Date:09/22/2016
Scientist:
Transcript:

Big Horn Sheep Cliff Dwellers

Music; Ambience: Desert footsteps

JM: Big Horn Sheep are supremely adapted to a desert environment. They're able to survive for prolonged periods of time without water, they've got keen eyesight to keep an eye out for predators, and their built for a vertical escape strategy. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

JM: We're in Southern California's Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, in a narrow canyon surrounded by steep cliffs.

MJ: In fact in big horn biology we call that escape terrain, anything that's steep is what they want to escape into.

JM: Mark Jorgenson is a retired State Park Superintendent.

MJ: They have excellent adaptations for that. Relative to other wild sheep in the world, their legs are shorter and stockier. Their hooves are very large and they have a tough outer hoof but the inner part of their hoof on the bottom is like hard callus. They're excellent at gripping rocks in steep terrain. So, when you look at who their predators are, mostly mountain lions and coyotes in this part of the world, they're probably better more adept at moving through that rough terrain. A lot of the old world sheep are more open country runners. They're longer legged and rather than just run to the steepest terrain, they will see danger and they will put a mile or two between you and them very quickly.

JM: But the big horn sheep with its body lower to the ground, with its stock, powerful legs, will climb to escape a predator. They can scale a vertical rock wall in an instant.

JM:We'll hear more on tracking desert big horn sheep in future programs. Our thanks to the California Environmental Legacy Project at Sacramento State University. Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.