Desert Bighorn Sheep inhabited the mountain ranges of West Texas at least 4000 years ago. When railroads and "market hunters" arrived, the bighorn population went into rapid decline. In 1903 Texas banned their hunting, but poachers outnumber game wardens and the last native Texas desert bighorn sighting was in 1960.

West Texas is naturally arrid, but is currently experiencing an extreme drought. To help ensure survival of the desert bighorn sheep transplanted from Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, the Texas Bighorn Society has constructed and maintains "drinkers" in the release areas. It didn't take long for all the area's creatures to find them.

There is a Web-cam with motion sensor at one of the drinkers. When the cam is triggered, a very large picture is sent to the Society and they add it to a Web page. Since there are a lot of those large pictures and each one takes "forever" to display over a dial-up modem, I cropped a few to zero in on the various drinker visitors.

Desert Bighorn
Mule Deer
Javelina
Pronghorn Antelope
Coyote, Fox, Mountain Lion
Quail, Road Runner, Mystery Bird. If you can identify it, please send your educated guess about the Dec 7, 2001 "Mystery Bird" to Information@TexasBighornSociety.org.