You don’t do this in your sleep.
No, this kind of sheep counting will be done upright and awake, by wide-eyed, intrepid volunteers scattered about the sweeping San Gabriel Mountains, equipped with pen, paper, clipboard and binoculars.
Unlike those fluffy, dream-like cotton balls you may number in your mind’s eye, these sheep are wild and spectacularly unique. These very real animals are Nelson’s bighorn sheep, Ovis canadensis nelsoni, a tan-colored, hooved mammal with a crown of horns adorning their heads. They eat grasses along mountain outcroppings.
“These are one of the rarest hooved animals on the continent,” said Rebecca Barboza, a wildlife biologist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife who has been studying these elusive creatures of the craggy San Gabriels for decades.
On Sunday, March 19, volunteers will be at the ready to conduct the 44th annual bighorn sheep ground survey in the Angeles National Forest and a western portion of the San Bernardino National Forest. That’s the day the U.S. Forest Service, in conjunction with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, will be stationing people who have signed up and taken the training.
Volunteers must sign up online at https://forms.office.com/g/eGGZ3URCTu. You must take virtual training through Microsoft Teams the day before, on Saturday, March 18 at 6 p.m. Volunteers will learn where they’ll be stationed, what kind of gear to bring and what conditions to expect. Email [email protected] for questions and more information.
Sheep spotters can choose between six locations. Those locations in the Angeles National Forest are: the closed part of Highway 39 at Islip Saddle about 27 miles north of Azusa and south of Highway 2; near the Bridge to Nowhere along the east fork of the San Gabriel River; at San Antonio Falls; and at Big Rock Creek near Wrightwood. In the San Bernardino National Forest, the two locations are both in the Lytle Creek area.
The volunteers will help…
Read the full article here
