Favoritos de pwilson96

To this date, the second largest Burmese python caught in the Florida Keys. The animal was located in a novel way, it had eaten a Virginia opossum outfitted with a satellite telemetry collar. After a set period of inactivity, the collar would send off signal indicating that the animal was dead. Well this happened, and then the collar would move a few hundred feet, then go back on mortality signal, then move again and so on. After a week of this, we decided to go see what was up with the animal, so we tracked it to the hardwood-mangrove edge underground, odd for a opossum. We set up a grid of camera traps and baited them with cat food and no opossum showed up. A few days later, we tried digging at the point where the signal was strongest, thinking that maybe the collar slipped and after an hour we saw scales! We were able to extract the python that day after quite a fight pulling her from her burrow.
(1) Myself and other CLNWR employees holding the python
(2) First image of the python in the underground cavity
(3) Python being measured
(4) Python's enormous head
(5) Location of the collar (RIP Prairie Dog) in the python's GIT
(6) X-Ray of the collar within the python
Point submitted to EDDMapS and under review.
TL: 383.54cm
SVL: not taken
Mass: 28122.7kg
Sex: Female

'Sleeping beauty'

Resting in a depression on a large vine (lliana) along the trail. It is here for hours, until the rain poured.

Inasmuch as its venom is lethal, the viper is quite vulnerable in this passive state - can easily be picked up and killed by locals, especially for food in this region. In fact, this viper species, like the gaboon, is a popular animal protein source.
Being found behind, or beyond the cutline of the forest reserve determines survival - life, or death for the spectacular wildlife.

Large (wild) herd of Desert Bighorn Sheep, male and female, at PGA West, a desert suburban neighborhood in La Quinta, California.

Desert Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis ssp. nelsoni) is a subspecies of bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) that is native to the deserts of the United States' intermountain west and southwestern regions, as well as northwestern Mexico. The Bureau of Land Management considered the subspecies "sensitive" to extinction.
Desert bighorn sheep are stocky, heavy-bodied sheep, similar in size to mule deer. Weights of mature rams range from 115 to 280 pounds (52 to 127 kg), while ewes are somewhat smaller. Due to their unique concave elastic hooves, bighorn are able to climb the steep, rocky terrain of the desert mountains with speed and agility. They rely on their keen eyesight to detect potential predators, such as mountain lions, coyotes, and bobcats, and they use their climbing ability to escape.
Both sexes develop horns soon after birth, with horn growth continuing more or less throughout life. Older rams have curling horns measuring over three feet long with more than one foot of circumference at the base. The ewes' horns are much smaller and lighter and do not tend to curl. After eight years of growth, the horns of an adult ram may weigh more than 30 pounds. Annual growth rings indicate the animal's age. The rams may rub their own horns to improve their field of view. Both rams and ewes use their horns as tools to break open cactus, which they consume, and for fighting.
Diet of a Desert bighorn sheep is mainly grasses. When grasses are unavailable, they turn to other food sources, such as sedges, desert holly and cacti . As ruminants, grass-eating bighorn sheep have a complex four-part stomach that enables them to eat large portions rapidly before retreating to cliffs or ledges where they can thoroughly rechew and digest their food, safe from predators.
The desert bighorn has become well adapted to living in the desert heat and cold and, unlike most mammals, their body temperature can safely fluctuate several degrees. During the heat of the day, they often rest in the shade of trees and caves. Southern desert bighorn sheep are adapted to a desert mountain environment with little or no permanent water. Some may go without visiting water for weeks or months, sustaining their body moisture from food and from rainwater collected in temporary rock pools. They may have the ability to lose up to 30% of their body weight and still survive. After drinking water, they quickly recover from their dehydrated condition. Wildlife ecologists are just beginning to study the importance of this adaptive strategy, which has allowed small bands of desert bighorns to survive in areas too dry for many of their predators.
Desert bighorn sheep are social, forming herds of 8-10 individuals; sometimes herds of several dozen are observed. Rams battle to determine the dominant animal, which then gains possession of the ewes. Facing each other, rams charge head-on from distances of 20 ft (6m) or more, crashing their massive horns together with tremendous impact, until one or the other ceases.
Desert bighorn sheep live in separate ram and ewe bands most of the year. They gather during the breeding season (usually July–October), but breeding may occur anytime in the desert due to suitable climatic conditions. Gestation lasts 150–180 days, and the lambs are usually born in late winter. Desert bighorn sheep typically live for 10–20 years.
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/145539-Ovis-canadensis-nelsoni

https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Mammals/Bighorn-Sheep