Desert Bighorns - pics

[GRINCH]

Beautiful animals,great pics

[RUSTY1]

Man I would love to live out west!!!! I would even enjoy that ride home from work!!

Rusty

[HornHunter]

zbone
there pretty much seperated by the CO river, now there is a recent transplant in the debeque area of rockies that puts them a little closer

but right now there still a true species, but there is nothing other then physical boundries to keep them apart, they will interbreed and do, I remember a huge desert came from new mexico just a couple of years ago, looked just like a rocky, so it boils down to where you kill them as to what specie they really are, alot of animals are (lines in the sand) if you will, stones and dalls are the same way

a true desert sheep is a very small bodied animal but that is due to there habitat, you put them in lush vegatation with few predators and they grow big

the only real way to keep track of them is radio collar the young rams as they travel great distances

here are some rockies

 

[Big Ed]

Beautiful pics,Thank you for sharing!!

[ckanous]

I'm with everyone else on this--Cool Pics! I'm gonna have to admit that I am very jealous though!!

[kadbow]

The winter seems to change the animals priorities with regards to survival.  They seem less concerned with humans and roads and mor concerned with food.  In the winter I will see herds of elk bedded in an open field right off of I-70.  It also makes them more susceptable to poachers.

[Muskoxman]

Great pics !

I was fortunate to grow up in Alaska with dall sheep hunting right out my backdoor. Recently I've moved to Colorado and would love to make a run at at big horn.
What's the chances of drawing a tag ?

[kadbow]

Once you have 3 points you have a chance, slim, but a chance.  Where do you live?

[Muskoxman]

Right now I'm out in north east , Yuma CO. My in-laws had a house here we could stay in. But we're hoping to move to the mountains as soon as my land in AK sells. I'm looking at the Westcliffe and Trinidad areas.

Thanks, John

[kadbow]

That is a nice area you are looking at.  I sent you a PM with some local trad info.

[Zbone]

HornHunter - Yeah, they'll travel, and if far enough capable to interbreed, and that was kinda my reason for bringing up the subject. I Iived in Colorado a couple years (was also inspired by O’Connor as a kid) and spent as much time as I could around the wild sheep while out there (even drew a Rocky ewe tag once), but it wasn't until reading this thread did I realize the desert variety were relocated so close to the Rockys. Although I hadn't really looked up Colorado’s desert subspecies locations because odds of ever drawing a tag are astronomical, I thought they were more isolated to the desert canyons of southern CO, much further from there Rocky cousins, but hmmm, guess not…

Spent some time around the Glenwood, Rifle, Meeker area, and had I known about the Debeque herd would have checked them out. Have never seen a Desert subspecies in the wild…. Again kadbow, thanx for sharing the pix.

[toppredator]

Awesome pics!!!

[J. Oles]

Great looking Ram