opinion

Valley Voice: Coachella Valley bighorn sheep forecast is sunny for now

At last week's annual meeting of Palm Desert's storied Bighorn Institute, members and guests sat in rapt attention during a "State of the Sheep" address given by Institute staff.

Paired with some spectacular imagery, biologist Aimee Bayard reviewed the latest sheep populations in our local mountains and gently waved a few red flags. The story went like this:

In the Northern Santa Rosa mountains behind Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert, there are 76 adult bighorn or thereabouts roaming our southern foothills. Some 36 are female (ewes) and the rest male (rams). That's the good news.

The not-so-good news is that there appear to be only two lambs that survived from last year's spring birthing season here. While a most unusual second lambing season took place in the fall, it remains to be seen how many of those youngsters make it past their first year. Our warm winter has also brought forth several early births over the past several weeks and more are expected in the coming months.

For now, this population appears to be stable.

OTHER COLUMNS BY MIKE RIVKIN

A similar story is in place for the San Jacinto mountains in back of Palm Springs.

Once on the verge of disappearing, this herd now boasts 76 adults with an encouraging 42-to-34 female-to-male ratio. Insofar as rams can and do breed with multiple ewes during the mating season, a majority of females is a sign of positive growth. Indeed, Institute staffers have recently identified seven yearling adults, making for a relatively young herd and even better prospects for the future.

For whatever reasons, lambing season has been slow to get started here with only one little fuzzy documented so far. Still, things are looking up here, too.

Paradoxically, the red flags waved during the meeting mostly concerned the largest of the three local herds: that which is adjacent to La Quinta in the Central Santa Rosa mountains. A 2016 census conducted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife identified 119 adult bighorn, an excellent number by historical standards.

Despite this healthy population, sheep in this region are far more likely to die from urban interactions than anywhere else in the Coachella Valley. Some 20 bighorn deaths from urban causes have been documented since 2012, including from auto accidents, canal drownings, consumption of poisonous foliage such as oleander, and recurring lamb deaths from pneumonia. Regarding this last item, at least six lambs perished last year from disease and many more seen on area golf courses showed clear signs of illness.

Comprehensive fencing is the answer; just look at Rancho Mirage and its success in eliminating unnecessary sheep mortality. Still, the cost is high and local resistance remains entrenched. Future columns will continue to pound away on this problem.

For now, however, the numbers are encouraging.

If you're planning a hike and want to see sheep, visit the Bighorn Institute’s project on the i-Naturalist website online to see where recent sightings have occurred. If that's too iffy for you, then join the Institute's staff for one of the member hikes that occur throughout the winter season. So far this year, their sheep sighting record is 100 percent. No promises, but the odds are in your favor!

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