374 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



WEEMS'S BIGHORN 



Ovis CANADENSIS WEEMSi Goldman 



Ovis canadensis weemsi Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 50, p. 30, Apr. 2, 

 1937 (Cajon de Tecomaja, Sierra de la Giganta, about 30 miles south of Cerro 

 de la Giganta, southern Lower California, Mexico). 



This recently named race occupies the mountainous country 

 at the tip of the peninsula of Lower California and is remarka- 

 bly dark for a desert-frequenting animal. In its "usually 

 darker" color it seems chiefly to differ from the race cremno- 

 bates of the upper parts of the peninsula, "varying from very 

 dark brown more or less mixed with black, " rump patch white, 

 almost divided by the tail stripe. Horns in the adult female 

 are said to be remarkably long and gradually tapering; in males 

 the lateral surface is flatter and the external ridge more promi- 

 nent than in other races. 



Very little information is at hand as to the status of this 

 sheep. Major Goldman describes the country in which it 

 lives as supporting a richer vegetation than that to the north 

 where the race cremnobates is found, indicating a greater rain- 

 fall. The Sierra de la Giganta is the highest range of moun- 

 tains in the southern part of the Cape, about 60 or 70 miles 

 long and isolated by a low gap on the north and the south, 

 close to the Gulf of Mexico. Its eastern face is much steeper 

 and more broken than the western. The flora includes a num- 

 ber of subtropical species not found to the north. Here this 

 southernmost race of mountain sheep still occurs in small 

 numbers. Goldman mentions four specimens secured by his 

 party at the type locality in 1936. There is a mounted head 

 in the Museum of Comparative Zoology obtained in 1925 near 

 La Paz, and it is of the dark-brown color characteristic of the 

 race. Although doubtless the puma occasionally attacks this 

 sheep, as Goldman intimates, yet this animal is probably not 

 now common enough in Lower California to be nearly so im- 

 portant an enemy as man. The Mexican Government nomi- 

 nally gives the sheep of this area full legal protection, but, as 

 earlier mentioned by Dr. Nelson, the law is difficult to enforce. 

 Nevertheless it is encouraging to learn that this small remnant 

 of mountain sheep still holds out in the isolated ranges of the 

 tip of Lower California. Cowan (1940) regards specimens 

 from Sierra San Borjas, 20 miles north of Calmalli, as inter- 

 mediate between this race and 0. c. cremnobates. 



