Fauna of the National Parks of the United States: The Bighorn of Death Valley
Welles RE and Welles FB. 1961. Fauna of the National Parks of the United States: The Bighorn of Death Valley. Fauna of the National Parks of the United States Series. No. 6. National Park Service. Washington, D.C.
This study contains historical and ecological information about the desert bighorn of the Death Valley. Death Valley National Monument comprises 2 million acres of extremely picturesque Great Basin desert terrain. Death Valley itself is approximately 190 miles long and from 5 to 20 miles wide. About 550 square miles of the valley is below sea level, reaching the lowest point in this hemisphere. The valley is surrounded by very rugged mountains which rise abruptly to elevations of 5,000 to 11,000 feet, with practically no foothills. These mountains, together with their great alluvial fans, compose the major habitat for the Death Valley bighorn. The present study was undertaken because very little has been published or known about the day-to-day life history and ecology of the desert bighorn anywhere. It was realized also that studies conducted under the critical environmental conditions of Death Valley might yield findings of a significant and possibly somewhat different nature from those obtained elsewhere. Although the study was conducted chiefly in the Black and Funeral Mountains, it includes a brief preliminary survey of the pinon belt of the Grapevine Mountains.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Welles, Ralph; Welles, Florence
- Date of Issue
- 1961
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- DEVA , GRBA , HIST
- Keywords
- Absence (Biodiversity), Abundance (Biodiversity), Animal Behavior, Animal Studies, Artiodactyla (Even-Toed Ungulates), Bovidae (Bovids), CA, Cultural Resources, Death Valley National Park, Diet, Distribution, Distribution (Biodiversity), ehistory, Mammalia (Mammals), NV, Observations, Ovis canadensis nelsoni (Nelson's Bighorn Sheep), Population Dynamics, Presence (Biodiversity), Reproduction, Taxa Links To Datasets, Taxa Links To References, Water Sources (Wildlife)