Bighorn Sheep

I posted these photos on one of my other blogs, but wanted to share them here, too, because they are so unusual. These are WILD desert bighorn sheep. I spotted them last Saturday morning, while driving up to the ranch to work with the horses. They were grazing right off the mountain road! I slammed on the brakes (nobody was behind me and the road was pretty much deserted), parked the car, and walked back to take these photos of them. They didn't seem to be afraid of me at all, although the big ram moved a little bit away and kept a watchful eye on me. I'm so glad that I saw them. It isn't every day that people see them out in the mountains, so it was a fortunate sighting, indeed. There is a fence up a ways further, to keep them away from homes and humans, but these apparently got around the fence and were happily munching away. I'm curious as to why they were so far down on the mountain when there is plenty of vegetation for them further up. They are an endangered species and, in 1999, were down to about 280 left in our local mountains. During the winter months they occassionally trespass onto golf courses and eat their vegetation. I saw another one last spring, off Vista Point. She was on a ridge further up the mountain and several cars had stopped to view her, too. I'm hoping to see more of them over the next year.