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During desert winters, Peninsular bighorn sheep sometimes rely on barrel cacti as a supplemental water source. A bighorn will butt the spiny cactus, splitting it open with mighty horns, then eat the plant’s watery insides, which sustain it for a few dry days. But development, sprawl, and agriculture continue to erode the bighorn’s habitat, leaving this distinct population of desert sheep with fewer and fewer life-sustaining succulents.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE
PROTECTION STATUS: Endangered
YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 1998
CRITICAL HABITAT: 845,000 acres in California designated in 2001
RECOVERY PLAN: 2000
RANGE: Restricted to east-facing, lower-elevation slopes (typically below 4,600 feet) of the Peninsular Ranges along the northwest edge of the Sonoran Desert from southern California into Baja California, Mexico
THREATS: Loss of habitat due to development and agriculture, collisions with cars, predation by mountain lions, and diseases contracted from domestic sheep
POPULATION TREND: Populations plummeted from 971 in 1971 to 276 in 1996, but since the species was listed as endangered in 1998, the number of bighorns has increased to 705.
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SAVING THE PENINSULAR BIGHORN SHEEP
An estimated 1.5 to 2 million bighorn sheep roamed North America at the turn of the 20th century. Today, fewer than 70,000 bighorns remain, with Peninsular bighorns, a so-called “distinct population segment,” numbering only in the hundreds. The Center works to help Peninsular bighorn sheep build their population back from the brink of extinction. In March of 2000, we won protections for more than 50 endangered species in southern California’s four national forests, including the Peninsular bighorn; such protections included prohibiting livestock grazing on bighorn habitat in the San Bernardino National Forest. In 2001, we gained protections for lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, including ending off-road vehicle use of Dunn Road, illegally built in bighorn habitat.
The Center is actively seeking to prevent further encroachment of development upon Peninsular bighorn sheep habitat. In September 2006, we filed a lawsuit seeking to reverse a decision by the city of Palm Springs to extend a development agreement for the Shadowrock project, a golf resort and high-end housing development that would cut off an important movement corridor allowing Peninsular bighorn to access the northern portion of their range. And in May 2007, the Center and the Sierra Club won an injunction preventing grading for that same project area in designated Peninsular bighorn sheep critical habitat.
The Center is also advocating for protection of Peninsular bighorn in the central and southern parts of their range, including challenging off-road vehicle use in the Desert Cahuilla/Truckhaven area that impacts critical habitat, as well as fighting the expansion of a large gypsum mine also in critical habitat. We’re working to curb impacts from off-road vehicles in the Yuha Desert and other areas along the border that provide a link to bighorn populations in Mexico.
ACTION TIMELINE
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NATURAL HISTORY
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Contact: Lisa Belenky
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