While driving somewhere in Northern Arizona, or Southern Utah in 2013, we saw a female big horned sheep and her young buck munching away on the side of the road. Usually, one has to look very carefully to just get a glimpse of their contrasting white posteriors as they scale some far away cliff. These guys were right next to the road!
Perfect photo op! The calf was adorable. I stayed a respectful distance, but could still get close enough to see his little teeth as he dined on the plentiful roadside vegetation.
His mother occasionally gave me the stink-eye to warn me that she could break my knee caps if I came too close, but all the while she also continued her grazing.
For 10-15 minutes, I had the pleasure of leisurely photographing them. I focused mostly on the babe. Who wouldn't?
For someone who prides themselves with an ability to pay attention to detail, I was mortified to realize that night while downloading my photos that something was clearly wrong with the female's leg. How did I not see that when I was standing right there???
I immediately had a new level of respect for this momma. Her babe was quite young, but her injury was quite old. At some point she had completely fractured her hind leg and it had healed contorted backwards. It made me hurt to look at it.
While I never saw these 2 scale the big cliffs, the herd was close by--about 100 yards above us. She seemed to ambulate well enough, and she carried, delivered and was keeping the calf safe so far.....a testament to survivability!
Maybe staying close to the road kept more skittish predators at bay? I'll never know.
I like to think that this youngster grew up to have a large spiraling set of horns and is ramming into his competitors like they are destined to do. That said, I still don't get that cup-check-head-butting-testosterone-surge behavior of big horned sheep. They must all just have a pain threshold beyond my imagining. I know that momma does for sure!
