H-2 Desert Bighorn Sheep

The Desert Bighorn Sheep, sometimes called mountain sheep because they inhabit rough mountainous terrain, roamed over most of the mountain ranges of West Texas before the white man came to settle the land in the late 1800's.  Native Texas bighorns are now extinct.  Reports have been made - and continue to be made  - of bighorn sightings, but the last of the native bighorns were probably seen in the Sierra Diablo Mountains in 1959. Meat hunters for the westward moving railroad builders killed many, but most died of diseases carried by domestic sheep or starved when fences cut them off from food and water. Many efforts to reintroduce desert bighorns in Texas failed until the late 1970's when bighorn released into the Sierra Diablo Mountains survived and began to multiply.  Recently, bighorns have been successfully transferred to other Trans Pecos ranges. This image is from the Charles Beckendorf Texas Wildlife book. The original was an acrylic painting on canvas (1992) and the size is