opinion

Coachella Valley's bighorn start next season in big numbers

With our seasonal tourists returning to their northern climes, that leaves more room for the rest of us, right? Maybe so, but it's going to get pretty hot around here. How do our iconic four-legged neighbors — the Peninsular bighorn sheep — deal with it? As far as I know, they're not all packing up for Calgary.

Always cautious, bighorn get even more so in the summer. Even though they can withstand summer heat for up to three days without drinking, sheep can do a lot of slurping when they finally hit a watering hole.

Exposed and vulnerable when they're drinking, sheep will often post a sentinel high above the waterline to watch for predators. If none appear, a small group will slowly make their way down the rocky cliffside, stopping and starting to make sure the coast is clear. While the others drink, an adult ewe will often remain vigilant to ensure the safety of the herd.

Their dining habits are similarly survival-oriented, with a tendency to feed quickly and then retreat to a protected spot to bring up their cud and chew at leisure. This ability to ruminate — that is, bring the consumed plant material now mixed with digestive juices back up from the stomach for further chewing — enables sheep to extract the maximum nutrition from their sometimes not-so-nutritious food.

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When times are hot and forage is hard to find, this is a good skill to have.

During the summer, our bighorned neighbors will also change their daily routines taking advantage of the shade as much as possible and feeding in the cooler times of day. Unlike humans, desert-adapted bighorn have the ability to withstand elevated body temperatures, usually 102 degrees, but can withstand up to 107 degrees. This means that they can actually give off heat in days when the ambient temperature is lower than that.

For we two-legged locals, our bodies produce sweat to keep us cool, thus costing us a lot of water in the process. While sheep don't sweat as we do, they still lose a lot of water through dehydration. However, recent studies indicate that they can comfortably survive a water loss of up to 20 percent of their body weight. That, coupled with their ability to guzzle as much as five gallons of water at a time, gives them a special ability to cruise the summer doldrums without complaining ... which is more than I can say for us.

And, in fact, lambing season is off to a good start for our Peninsular bighorn.

Bighorn Institute monitoring of the three herds along the southern rim of the Coachella Valley indicate 68 new births throughout the range, plus nine survivals from the unusual second lambing season last fall.

While lamb survival is traditionally quite low — only about 25 percent of newborns make it to their first birthday — time will tell, but so far so good.

Mike Rivkin is a member of the Bighorn Institute board of directors. Email him at bi@bighorninstitute.org.