Bighorn Institute

08/08/2026

⭐️⭐️WE’RE HIRING⭐️⭐️

👉Do you want to work in conservation? Do you care about the endangered Peninsular bighorn sheep? Are you a detail-oriented, hard-worker with excellent office and communication skills? If you answered yes to all of these questions, this is the job for you!

👉Check out our flyer and visit our website to apply: www.bighorninstitute.org/job-opportunities

07/31/2026

Check out our latest newsletter here:

Waterhole CountOn July 8th and 9th the Institute, along with our team of amazing volunteers, successfully conducted our annual waterhole count in the northern Santa Rosa Mountains (NSRM) near Rancho Mirage. The weather was nice and hot with highs around 109˚, which was perfect for making thirsty sh...

07/23/2026

⭐️Throwback Thursday!⭐️ The year was 1985 and Bighorn Institute Executive Director, Jim DeForge, was treating a sick lamb at the Institute. We brought in 39 sick lambs and successfully rehabilitated 33 of them, which was unheard of! It took a deeply devoted group of biologists and veterinarians working together to accomplish this! Many of these rehabilitated lambs were released back into the wild, which is why you see bighorn in our mountains today!

06/22/2026

TOO CLOSE??!! 😂 This lamb is checking out a trail camera. Better than a ram and a head-butt! , , , ,

06/16/2026

The sheep are using these drinkers daily in this heat.

A ram drinks from a man-made guzzler while a ewe stands as a lookout. There are several man-made guzzlers in our area since there is no longer reliable year-round natural water.
Coachella Valley Photo! - by bighorninstitute

06/06/2026

This old boy is DOWN TO THE BONE on his right horn. All bighorn sheep have a bony core inside their hollow horn sheath. They have blood vessels in the horn sheath and they grew their entire lives; they do not shed their horns. This photo shows the many layers that make up a horn sheath so you can see it has degraded substantially. Eventually, he may lose that horn where the bone is exposed if he hits it hard enough. By that time, the tissue will be dead & he will be fine, just lopsided. There are a number of rams in the wild that have a broken off horn.