Dispatches from a Desert Isle: Other Desert Mammals

A Menagerie of Mammalian Miscellany

The desert is home to a wide range of mammals, many of which I also saw on my ramblings.
These dudes are cool too!

First the Arizona ruminants:

Bighorn Sheep
I kept having to tell myself they are sheep, not goats, until I finally learned the surprisingly big differences between sheep and goats, and particularly between mountain goats and bighorn sheep. Well anyway, here are the Bighorn Sheep. See if you can tell that they are sheep, not goats.

No beard.

Can you see that the tail points down?

Maybe you can see that better here.

And here's what it looks like when they fight.

Scientists are also trying to expand Bighorn territory, so they've just moved a bunch of them to Yosemite. Hooray!

...which may be a good thing, because their existing habitat seems to be being invaded.

Ages ago, Arizona was covered in water, and I guess back then they had beavers! Do they still have beavers? Anybody know?

Here's the beaver up close.

Nice fur, dude.