Jim in Anchorage Posted March 19, 2010 Posted March 19, 2010 Not always. Bighorn sheep occupy many environments at varying latitudes, across many types of ecosystems, including cold coniferous and deciduous forests, alpine meadows, temperate grasslands adjacent to mountain ranges, and warmer, drier desert regions of Southern California, Utah, and Baja California, Mexico (McCutchen, 1995). Bighorn sheep have adapted to many different climates. For example, they practice altitudinal migration between summer and winter to avoid extreme weather, and are able to meet water requirements through the moisture in their food during times of short water supply (Blood, 2000). These kinds of adaptations have allowed bighorn sheep to historically occupy a wide range of ecosystems, as long as there is open space in which to feed, and nearby rocky slopes in which to seek cover (Blood, 2000). Check out Fig. 2 (Yellow) There a lot of farms/ranches in that region today. I beg to differ with McCutchen, but I find it difficult to believe sheep would be spending time in grass lands. Their focus in life is avoiding predators[bears, wolves]. They are not fast[antelope, deer] or big[elk, moose]] Their defense is the terrain they live in. I have never seen a sheep on flat land. And I see lot's of them.
PromoTheRobot Posted March 19, 2010 Posted March 19, 2010 I wonder how many Tigers roam the plains of Missouri? PTR
Bullpen Posted March 20, 2010 Posted March 20, 2010 I wonder how many Tigers roam the plains of Missouri? PTR Ballgame! Nicely done PTR, surprised it took so long for someone to post that.
ExiledInIllinois Posted March 20, 2010 Posted March 20, 2010 I beg to differ with McCutchen, but I find it difficult to believe sheep would be spending time in grass lands. Their focus in life is avoiding predators[bears, wolves]. They are not fast[antelope, deer] or big[elk, moose]] Their defense is the terrain they live in. I have never seen a sheep on flat land. And I see lot's of them. Not trying to debate just to debate... I used to think like you did until I started reading up on them a few years back. Very interestiing that there used to be herds in then millions. No not really. Our generation (even ones before us) have never seen them on flat land because we are too young. But all such instances as these are wholly exceptional, and are chiefly interesting as showing that mountain sheep act more erratically and less according to rule than do most other kinds of game. Big Horn Sheep "...It has happened that I have generally hunted big-horn during weather of arctic severity; so that in my mind this great sheep is inseparably associated with snow-clad, desolate wastes, ice-coated crags, and the bitter cold of a northern winter; whereas the sight of a prong-buck, the game that we usually hunt early in the season, always recalls to me the endless green of the midsummer prairies as they shimmer in the sunlight. Yet in reality the big-horn is by no means confined to any one climatic zone. Along the interminable mountain chains of the Great Divide it ranges south to the hot, dry table-lands of middle Mexico, as well as far to the northward of the Canadian boundary, among the towering and tremendous peaks where the glaciers are fed from fields of everlasting snow. There exists no animal more hardy, nor any better fitted to grapple with the extremes of heat and cold. Droughts, scanty pasturage, or deep snows make it shift its ground, but never mere variation of temperature. The lofty mountains form its favorite abode, but it is almost equally at home in any large tract of very rough and broken ground. It is by no means an exclusively alpine animal, like the white goat. It is not only found throughout the main chains of the Rockies, as well as on the Sierras of the south and the coast ranges of western Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, but it also exists to the east among the clusters of high hills and the stretches of barren Bad Lands that break the monotonous level of the great plains..." "...But though the mountain sheep can stand this, and in fact do so with even less protection than the deer, yet they certainly dislike it more than do the latter. If mountains are near, they go up them far sooner and far higher than the deer..." "...About noon one hot midsummer day, three great rams crossed the river just below our ranch, stopping to drink, and spending some time on the sand-bars, occasionally playfully butting at each other. They trotted off before they could be stalked. To get down to the river they had to pass over a level plain half a mile wide; and once across, they went through a dense wood choked with underbrush for nearly half a mile more before again coming to the steep bluffs. On another occasion, in the rutting season, one of my cowboys encountered a mountain-ram crossing a broad, level river-bottom at midday. Occasionally a ram will join a flock of ewes, or a ewe and a yearling, in the spring. Two or three times I have known them to come boldly up to the bluffs that overlook and skirt a little frontier town, and there to stay grazing or resting for several hours; but they always made off in plenty of time to avoid the hunters who finally went after them. Once I shot one within a few hundred yards of my ranch house..." "...Two hundred years ago, Bighorn Sheep were widespread throughout the western United States, Canada, and northern Mexico. Some estimates placed their population at higher than 2 million. However, by around 1900, hunting, competition from domesticated sheep, and diseases had decreased the population to only several thousand. A program of reintroductions, natural parks, and reduced hunting, together with a decrease in domesticated sheep near the end of World War II, allowed the Bighorn Sheep to make a comeback, though not before Ovis canadensis auduboni, a sub-species that lived in the Black Hills, went extinct..." Hell's Canyon "...As European people settled the west, many of the activities either directly or indirectly had a negative impact on native bighorn sheep populations. In Hells Canyon, settlers quickly claimed every flat area with good soil, especially near the water. They brought with them flocks of cattle, horses, and domestic sheep. The flat areas were irrigated and turned into hay fields, while large gardens and orchards were adjacent to their homes..."
Jim in Anchorage Posted March 20, 2010 Posted March 20, 2010 I never said they would absolutely never go on flat terrain. But they are out of their environment. They stay close to the rough country, just like you never swim far from shore. As with any animal , the limiting population factor is the winter range. And their winter range is the high country. Their numbers have declined from over hunting more than habitat degradation by humans. Alaska is largely the same as it was 200 years ago, and I don't see sheep "herding" on the open tundra like a caribou.
ExiledInIllinois Posted March 20, 2010 Posted March 20, 2010 I never said they would absolutely never go on flat terrain. But they are out of their environment. They stay close to the rough country, just like you never swim far from shore. As with any animal , the limiting population factor is the winter range. And their winter range is the high country. Their numbers have declined from over hunting more than habitat degradation by humans. Alaska is largely the same as it was 200 years ago, and I don't see sheep "herding" on the open tundra like a caribou. I understand totally. What I was saying, before human intevention, there was estimated to be 2 million in the southwest... That puts them all over the place there. Of course AK is different, and I understand your AK perspective. But back to the thread, just because there were no BFLO/bison in WNY... Doesn't mean there never was, WNY is part of their historical range. It had to be fascinating getting a "first look" at North America. Even the Calumet region here before all the dunes were removed and the animals wiped out... Quite a bounty abounded!
Jim in Anchorage Posted March 20, 2010 Posted March 20, 2010 I understand totally. What I was saying, before human intevention, there was estimated to be 2 million in the southwest... That puts them all over the place there. Of course AK is different, and I understand your AK perspective. But back to the thread, just because there were no BFLO/bison in WNY... Doesn't mean there never was, WNY is part of their historical range. It had to be fascinating getting a "first look" at North America. Even the Calumet region here before all the dunes were removed and the animals wiped out... Quite a bounty abounded! I never disputed that there where bison in NY. It is the sheep/goats I would doubt. As far as the bison, I believe remains of mammoths were found near Batavia, so bison are not a stretch.
ExiledInIllinois Posted March 20, 2010 Posted March 20, 2010 I never disputed that there where bison in NY. It is the sheep/goats I would doubt. As far as the bison, I believe remains of mammoths were found near Batavia, so bison are not a stretch. I agree to. I was just making a point how some animals were in places we never thought they could be. Sorry if I implied sheep being in BFLO too!
Fan in San Diego Posted March 20, 2010 Posted March 20, 2010 Some of the replies to her story are great. B word slapped that hack writer into her rightful place.
Lurker Posted March 21, 2010 Posted March 21, 2010 Some of the replies to her story are great. B word slapped that hack writer into her his rightful place. Yep, we should all feel so much better now that we've stuck our collective tounges out at some 20 year old kid... I did get a kick out of the responses touting Sully and Kilgore as paragons of UM J-school quality, though.
Recommended Posts