Something I knew even before moving here was that the local trails have ardent defenders. A recent land exchange, for example, between the BLM and the local Agua Caliente band of Cahuilla Indians had trail user groups up in arms; the land at issue held portions of about half a dozen popular trails, including the famous “Cactus-to-Clouds” trail. While it’s hard to argue with the idea of local Native people controlling land that was taken from them, Agua Caliente trail management is geared toward the tourist trade rather than locals. Tourists can afford twelve bucks to see Tahquitz Falls the one time, but that same twelve bucks every time a local wants to hike the half mile from the north end of the South Lykken to the south end of the North Lykken gets a bit steep, and not in that good hikey way. So people were upset, and I don’t blame them.
In today’s Palm Springs Desert Sun, an article details plans to gate off a half mile of the very popular “Bump and Grind” Trail above Rancho Mirage. The reason: the busy trail crosses into the Magnesia Spring Ecological Reserve, which is managed for protection of the endangered Peninsular bighorn sheep, and wildlife managers suspect that hundreds of people a day hiking the trail, especially during lambing season (right now), will have deleterious effects on the sheep.
The article contains what I think is a really unfortunate quote by a local hiking activist and guidebook author.
Philip Ferranti, founder of the 19-year-old Coachella Valley Hiking Club, said the club supports greater access, period, and doesn’t think humans’ presence harms the bighorns.
“I actually walked with a bighorn sheep a couple of weeks ago,” he said. “I’ve had a number of positive experiences with bighorn sheep, they’ll come up to me and sometimes I’ll offer them a power bar or peanut butter brittle. They’re not nearly as frightened of people as they say.”
I’m a reflexive bighorn sheep supporter, so that’s which way my knee jerks, but I’m completely willing to hear arguments to the contrary. Ferranti’s argument doesn’t cut it. I myself have had similar interactions with bighorn sheep:
That’s a shot from 1992, taken on the Bright Angel Trail in the Grand Canyon. The sheep was asking for handouts. I wasn’t giving any. I’d have loved to, but the fact is that giving bighorn sheep handouts of food is not a “positive experience” for the bighorn.
Here’s an explanation from the Colorado Division of Wildlife, which concerns the genetically different but gastrointestinally identical Rocky Mountain bighorn:
Drive up the Mount Evans Road just about any summer weekend, and you’ll see bighorn sheep—lambs and all—ready to romp onto the road as cars approach. The bighorns head straight for the car windows, often crossing right in front of the grills of four-wheel drive vehicles. These wild animals show no fear of vehicles or the people inside. The bighorns have learned they can get cookies, chips and other goodies from behind those car windows.
We all know junk food is bad for people, but it’s even worse for wild animals. The complex digestive systems of wildlife have evolved over thousands of years. Deer, elk, and pronghorn are ruminants. That means they have a four-chambered stomach that serves as a ‘fermentation vat’. They can eat lots of vegetation and digest it very thoroughly. Unlike natural foods, treats from people often cannot be digested properly by big game. In fact, “human food” can, in many cases, stop a wild animal’s digestive system, causing it to get sick and die.
Big game depend entirely on native vegetation, such as grasses, forbs, and shrubs. Those plants provide all the nutritional requirements the animals need to survive in Colorado, even through winter. Eating non-natural kinds of foods can result in nutritional problems for wildlife—or even death.
It’s possible that Ferranti was misquoted or quoted out of context, so I’m reserving my judgment, and I’m looking forward to getting my copy of his book. I’ll probably still join the CV hiking club too, though the “access, period” position described in the article is troubling to me.
But it seems to me that the argument Ferranti is at least quoted as offering in favor of keeping that half mile of trail open is actually a damn good reason for closing it: well-intentioned people in the reserve can innocently cause harm to an endangered animal by attempting, in their own way, to be kind.
1 comment on "Feeding the bighorn"
I could not agree more. If this isn’t a misquote than Ferranti’s statement is outrageous. For him to rationalize that his hiking experience is worth risking the health of a species that has limited territory, and to further think that his encounter via peanut brittle is anything other than a travesty is unbelievable. This person is exactly why the trail should be limited, especially to him.