"The Bookends" - at Boulder City, NV

The Bookends

Connie and I, along with our neighbor Marc, went over to Hemenway Park in Boulder City to view the Desert Bighorn Sheep, Nevada’s state animal. They are becoming more and more popular as families, couples and even tour buses now routinely stop by the park. They are really quite a site and roam all over the park as well as in and around the yards of the surrounding homes. We even got to hear the cracking of horns as we witnessed some head-to-head combat between a couple of rams. Some of the pictures below were taken right in the front yards of the surrounding hillside homes. Connie came up with the title for the above shot. It was quite an enjoyable afternoon. 07/23/2009.

The Bighorn's body is compact and muscular; the muzzle, narrow and pointed; the ears, short and pointed; the tail, very short. The fur is deer-like and usually a shade of brown with whitish rump patches. The fur is smooth and composed of an outer coat of brittle guard hairs and short, gray, crimped fleece underfur. The summer coat is a rich, glossy brown but it becomes quite faded by late winter. The male sheep is called a ram and can be recognized by his massive brown horns. The horns curl back over the ears, down, and up past the cheeks. By the time a ram reaches 7 or 8 years of age, he can have a set of horns with a full curl and a spread of up to 33 inches. Ewes, the females, are smaller than the rams and have shorter, smaller horns that never exceed half a curl.

Some more curious facts: They are known for head-to-head combat between males. Combat between rams has been observed to last for longer than 24 hours. Horn size is a symbol of rank. Male horns can weigh as much as 30 lbs. Desert Bighorn do not require drinking water in winter when green vegetation is available. During the summer months they visit waterholes at least every 3 days. Bighorns have a complex 9-stage digestive process that allows them to maximize removal of nutrients from food of marginal quality. To learn more visit … http://www.desertusa.com/big.html