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Having had lived in Henderson for more than six years, we had been to Boulder City on many occasions, yet had never been aware of the daily treck of the Desert Bighorn Sheep to Hemenway Park. We didn't even realize that the Desert Bighorn Sheep were Nevada's state animal. In July of 2009, based upon a tip from two of our dearest neighbor friends, Sue and Nancy Eustis, Connie and I, along with another one of our neighbors, Marc Resnic, decided to take a drive over to Hemenway Park to see what we could find. What a find it was. During our three hour stay, we must have witnessed 35-40 of these beautiful animals frolicking in the park and roaming through the yards of the surrounding homes. They are becoming more and more popular as families, couples and even tour buses now routinely stop by the park. We even got to hear the cracking of horns as we witnessed some head-to-head combat between a couple of rams. We now try to stop by the park at least once a year. Each visit provides a different and unique experience and a host of wonderful pictures. This is one of my favorites. Connie came up with the title for the above shot.
Description: The Bighorn's body is compact and muscular; the muzzle, narrow and pointed; the ears, short and pointed; the tail, very short. The fur is deer-like and usually a shade of brown with whitish rump patches. The fur is smooth and composed of an outer coat of brittle guard hairs and short, gray, crimped fleece underfur. The summer coat is a rich, glossy brown but it becomes quite faded by late winter. The male sheep is called a ram and can be recognized by his massive brown horns. The horns curl back over the ears, down, and up past the cheeks. By the time a ram reaches 7 or 8 years of age, he can have a set of horns with a full curl and a spread of up to 33 inches. Ewes, the females, are smaller than the rams and have shorter, smaller horns that never exceed half a curl.
Some more curious facts: Bighorn Sheep's horns grow all their lives. You and tell a sheep's age by counting its horns' growth rings, one for each year. They are known for head-to-head combat between males. Combat between rams has been observed to last for longer than 24 hours. Horn size is a symbol of rank. Male horns can weigh as much as 30 lbs. Desert Bighorn do not require drinking water in winter when green vegetation is available. During the summer months they visit waterholes at least every 3 days. Bighorns have a complex 9-stage digestive process that allows them to maximize removal of nutrients from food of marginal quality.
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The slideshow below is designed to run automatically in place. Clicking anywhere in the black background area that surrounds the picture being shown will PAUSE the show and bring up the Pause, Forward and Back menu at the bottom of the slideshow window, allowing you to start, stop or manually forward pictures one at a time. To view the slideshow full-screen, click in the middle of the running show. When the new browser window appears, click on the left side of the menu where it says "slideshow". |
Slideshow Description: The slideshow above contains 30 pictures that were taken during four or five visits to Boulder City's Hemenway Park over the past couple of years. |
