Tracking Bighorns

We (WTI) have been subcontracted to track bighorn sheep in an area where they want to build wind turbines.  If we find fresh sheep sign in the area it will end the project.  Most people are rooting for the sheep but it’s kind of funny because the battle is against green energy!  Environmental conflicts are often complicated and sometimes the right answer isn’t so clear.  I would like to find sheep sign because it is a beautiful desert that I would hate to see big turbines, a road, and lots of construction mess up.

Bighorn sheep tracks

 

Here are some very fresh Bighorn sheep tracks that we found this morning.  They can be distinguished from deer tracks by their roundness or “boxy” appearance and also the rise in the middle of the tracks that is formed by the shape of the hooves.

 

 

 

 

Bighorn sheep track

 

 

 

Here you can really see that rise of soil in the middle of the track.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are some beautiful colors out in the desert.

 

 

 

Bobcat scat

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a cool scat that I found today on a rock.  It’s about an inch long and I think it is a Bobcat scat but it sure looks a lot like weasel scat to me.  Can you see the small rodent jaw bone imbedded on the side?

 

 

We were looking at all these fresh tracks this morning when I had the thought:  I bet these sheep are watching us this whole time up on the ridge.  So I looked up and there she was!  Our first sighting of the project.  Unfortunately this animal and the tracks that we’ve found so far aren’t quite in the proposed windmill area.  If you look closely you can tell that this is a female by her horns.  The male horns continue to curl around more than the females.

Ewe (female bighorn)

 

 

 

 

 

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Cougar trappin’

one of the traps with deer bait

I was lucky enough to get to take part in a cougar capture attempt with wildlife veterinarian Winston Vickers.  He is trying to catch a collared cat whose batteries are low.  Yesterday he got word that a kill was made and that the cat was feeding on it for the past couple days so we hiked two traps up into the mountains and set them at the kill sight.  We waited until midnight and then had to leave.  It’s not easy to convince a wild animal to walk into a steel cage.

bighorn sheep have cool hooves made for maximum traction

This sick yew was killed by the cougar we are trying to capture

cougar research requires a lot of gear and a lot of work

Distinctive claw mark from this cougar

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