The results are in from the annual water hole count in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and the numbers are down with 207 sheep sighted.   Overall, they had a good count, but last year they saw 296 sheep.  Volunteers spend 3 consecutive days around July 4th at a pre-determined site and count the number of sheep that come in to water and determine their sex and age.  Since bighorn sheep rely more heavily on drinking water during...

It’s been a tough year for lamb survival throughout the range and there are only a handful of lambs alive in our study areas, which include three herds.   This is always disappointing news to report, but there’s a potential silver lining.  Several collared ewes in the northern Santa Rosa Mountains herd look like they’ll give birth again in November.  Fall lambs and ewes having more than one lamb in a year is an amazing phenome...

Conservation is essentially protecting and managing natural resources to ensure their availability for future generations.   With an ever-increasing human population, there are sure to be inadvertent impacts on natural resources.  Conservation will always require “give and take.”  Every species plays a role in its ecosystem and if you remove one it will likely affect the entire system.  Bighorn sheep are an “umbrella species,”...

In February 2014, as part of a multiple-species habitat conservation plan requirement, the state and federal wildlife agencies mandated that a barrier (i.e., a fence or functional equivalent) be built around three golf courses in La Quinta (SilverRock, PGA West and The Quarry) because bighorn sheep have been utilizing them as an artificial food and water source since 2007.  The barrier was to be built within two years, but has...

In mid-November 2016, the California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) conducted a helicopter survey for bighorn sheep in the Peninsular Ranges.  This was the first range-wide survey since 2010.  They saw 588 bighorn sheep (including lambs) and 62% of the collared bighorn.  Statistically, CDFW estimates there are now 794 adult bighorn in the Peninsular Ranges, which stretch from Palm Springs to the Mexican border.  This pop...

Two of the three local herds have increased in number from Palm Springs to La Quinta.  There are now approximately 70 adult bighorn in the San Jacinto Mountains near Palm Springs with 16 lambs surviving from last year.  In the northern Santa Rosa Mountains there are now around 80 adult bighorn with 13 lambs surviving.  Both of these herds have increased, but the central Santa Rosa herd near La Quinta is down slightly, accordin...

The San Jacinto Mountains (SJM) near Palm Springs are the steepest escarpment in North America rising to nearly 11,000 feet in 7.5 miles. Bighorn were once numerous in the SJM and summer water hole counts in the mid 1970s  estimated that there were almost 300 Peninsular bighorn there.  In 1979, the range-wide estimate, from Palm Springs to the Mexican border, was nearly 1,200 Peninsular bighorn, but by 1996, the population plu...

In January, bighorn in the wild are aged one year older to make field aging methodology more consistent. That means lambs are now yearlings.  There was good lamb survival, or recruitment, in the San Jacinto Mountains near Palm Springs and there are now around 50 bighorn in that herd.  The northern Santa Rosa herd near Rancho Mirage remains stable at 80 sheep however, lamb recruitment was low.  The sheep in La Quinta that utili...

The California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) put around 90 radio-collars on bighorn throughout the Peninsular Ranges from Palm Springs to the Mexican border in early November.  The Institute assisted CDFW for 4 days of capturing and collaring efforts in our study areas from La Quinta to Palm Springs.  We are pleased that 7 sheep (5F, 2M) were collared in the San Jacinto Mountains near Palm Springs, 6 ewes were collared...

We hear stories throughout the year about bighorn sheep sightings on four golf courses in La Quinta (Tradition, SilverRock, PGA West and The Quarry).  Most people are excited to see the sheep and some mistakenly think that the sheep need these urban areas, especially during the drought.  We understand this concern, but hope readers will realize that it is not good for the bighorn to be down in the urban areas; the sheep do not...