A wandering bighorn sheep — apparently one of two seen in Saguaro National Park west of Tucson in March — now has been spotted and photographed in the Continental Ranch area northwest of the city.
Among people observing and photographing the bighorn ram on Sunday, April 24, was area resident Andrew Core.
It was seen “at the El Rio Open Space area at the north end of Continental Ranch,” Core said in an email message. “We stayed away from it — 150 to 200 yards — but it was not far from the houses. In fact, my friend spotted it from his backyard.”
The traveling ram appears to be one of two bighorns from a herd in Ironwood Forest National Monument northwest of Tucson, a spokesman for the Arizona Game and Fish Department said. They have been seen and photographed in Saguaro Park’s district in the Tucson Mountains and later near Ajo Way south of the mountain range.
“We can’t be sure, but the working theory is that it’s one of the two seen earlier,” said Game and Fish spokesman Mark Hart.
“We’ve seen this behavior before in sheep from the bighorn (reintroduction) project” in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, Hart said. “We had a ram that moved from the Pusch Ridge area of the Catalinas to Colossal Cave Park (southeast of Tucson). The ram has since turned around and is presumably moving back to the Catalinas and Pusch Ridge.”
GPS collars on the animals reintroduced in the Catalinas allow wildlife officials to keep track of their movements. Bighorns from the Ironwood Forest National Monument herd aren’t equipped with GPS collars.
Hart said it’s possible that the two wide-ranging rams from the Ironwood Forest herd might be on an “exploratory trip.” And he noted that they could have a reason for working their way back to their home herd.
“They have undoubtedly not encountered any ewes in the Tucson Mountains, ” Hart said. “So they may be moving back to Ironwood Forest” for possible mating.
