Ovis canadensis “Bighorn Sheep” Bovidae, male, 3 years old
Wild Horse Island, Flathead Lake, MT September 27, 1961 col. Wesley Woodgerd (photo Robert Niese)
Bighorn Sheep were first transplanted to Wild Horse Island in 1939 and, from a herd of only 8 breeding adults, the population grew to be more than 200 strong. By the 60s and 70s, when Wesley Woodgerd was studying their herds, the maximum number of sheep recorded on the island at one time exceeded 240 individuals. This deformed young male was born around a time when the herd was likely suffering greatly from inbreeding depression which may have contributed to its odd schnoz. Alternatively, without any predators on the island, perhaps this individual was injured at a young age and managed to survive and develop this malformity from its wounds. Learn more about the Wild Horse Island Bighorn Sheep here.
Blackfoot River Recreation Corridor (BLM), MT June 8, 2016 Robert Niese
Look at this adorable little fatling! Golden Mantled Ground Squirrels are a common, endearingly pudgy species found throughout western North America east of the cascades and Sierras. They, along with dozens of other ground squirrel species (41, to be precise), were part of the Great Ground Squirrel Generic Revision of 2009. In this taxonomic revision, mammalogists at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History determined that the mega-genus Spermophilus was likely a paraphyletic clade of 8 separate genera. Callospermophilus was one of those genera that rose from the ashes of the Spermophilus mega-genus. Today it remains a distinct genus with only three species, all of which are restricted to western North America. Here in the PNW, one of these species, C. saturatus, is endemic to the Cascade range where it likely became isolated by the Columbia River, allowing it to differentiate from its eastern sister species, C. lateralis.
A Risso’s dolphin caught up in fishing line. Dolphin numbers in the Indian Ocean may have dropped by more than 80% in recent decades, with an estimated 4 million small cetaceans caught as “by-catch” in commercial tuna fishing nets since 1950, according to a study
A badger in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Badgers were an alarmingly frequent topic of conversation in the White House during the early months of Donald Trump’s presidency, according to Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng
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