Bighorn sheep. Ovis canadensis

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Range in Mexico.—Formerly most desert ranges of northern Mexico from Baja California to Coahuila. Now only scattered remnants of bighorn remain, as shown on the map, the only substantial populations being in Baja California.

The bighorn of Mexico is exclusively an animal of the desert ranges. It frequents the most arid and forbidding cinder cones, rocks upthrusts, and rims of the northern deserts and never has occurred in the well-vegetated and seemingly more hospitable mountains. But in its rocky home the stately bighorn is a noble sight.

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Although bighorns at one time were present in all or most of the desert mountains in the zone designated on the map, they were never as numerous as their neighbors the antelope and mule deer, for the reason that the actual spots of suitable habitat are small and localized. Within their restricted niche they seemingly occurred in good numbers. But bighorns are not overly wary, and since they, like the other desert ungulates, have to visit the water holes, they are highly vulnerable to hunting. Little by little, continued persecution has brought this species perilously close to extinction. Unlike the antelope, the bighorn is in greatest danger in the central region and has held out best in Baja California, and northwestern Sonora.

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Bighorns live in small bands, the ewes and lambs tending to group separately form the rams. Although these animals are ordinarily sedentary in their movements, a band may take off in search of new range during critical periods, as in an extended drought, and they have been seen crossing desert flats between mountain ranges. This is not the usual pattern, however. Bighorns are loath to leave the mountains, since they are poor runners on flat terrain. Only in the rocks can they easily outmaneuver predators, including man.