California Living Museum to debut new Desert Bighorn Sheep Exhibit on Thursday in Bakersfield
Sheep have historical ties to Kern County
Posted: 11/15/2012
Last Updated:
190 days ago
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -
The Desert Bighorn Sheep Exhibit will open at the California Living Museum on Thursday, featuring a ram and two ewes.
The exhibit is CALM's first cooperative breeding program and is part of a collaboration with the six other institutions in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums population management plan for this rare species.
The ram and two ewes are on loan in partnership with the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and Los Angeles Zoo. The animals will establish CALM's breeding stock and eventually CALM's herd.
This is CALM's first new exhibit in two years.
Threatened with eventual extinction, Bighorn numbers are only one-tenth the population that existed when Europeans first settled the west.
Desert Bighorn Sheep have strong historical ties to Kern County and the native peoples of our region. Today, the total population of the Desert Bighorn Sheep is only about 13,000 animals.
The CALM is located at 10500 Alfred Harrell Hwy.
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