Artwork by Acorn Designs
Bighorn Sheep Lokta Card
$5.00 – $8.00
- Our images are set in a frame on this beautiful, handmade paper from the Nepalese Lokta shrub.
- This tree-free paper is both environmentally friendly and sustainably harvested, providing a market for cottage industries that are Fair-Trade Certified.
- Each card comes with an envelope and is packaged individually.
- Cards are blank on the inside and have a great story on the reverse side about the picture on the front.
- Handmade cards are not available for wholesale pricing.
Back of Card DESCRIPTION
Bighorn sheep are found in the Rocky Mountains from southern Canada to Colorado; a desert subspecies ranges from Nevada to California to west Texas and south into Mexico. Bighorns inhabit alpine meadows, grassy mountain slopes, and foothill country near rugged, rocky cliffs and bluffs. They climb cliff faces with amazing ease, using tiny ledges for footholds and bouncing from ledge to ledge over distances of up to 20 feet.
Bighorn sheep have compact muscular bodies. Males can be easily recognized by their massive horns which curl back over the ears. The females are smaller then the males and have shorter, smaller horns that never exceed half a curl. Bighorns are renowned for the spectacular competition among males during the breeding season. Male dominance hierarchies are based on horn size; males with smaller horns are generally subservient to larger-horned males. Males with similarly sized horns battle amongst each other for breeding privileges. Facing each other from a distance they run towards each other with heads lowered, rearing up and crashing their heads together. Foreheads slam with a crack that can be heard for more than a mile.
Bighorn populations began to decline in the mid-1800’s at the time of heavy human settlement, partly due to degradation of habitat, development, road-building, water-management and recreational activities. Bighorns live in increasingly fragmented populations which make them more vulnerable.
