Bighorn story for the winter solstice
A Bighorn Christmas Story © Paula Brown-Williams 2018 What did the bighorn get for Christmas? Why every year it is the same thing—a new winter coat. Poor bighorn you say? How boring? Not so! Allow me to explain. You may think that expensive “Polar Tek” parka of yours is something to behold, but has it seen you through three Ice Ages? The coats of Sierra bighorn sheep have done precisely that. Now there is an expedition jacket for you. And for Sierra Nevada bighorn, the expedition has been 300,000 years long! Let’s examine the features of this finery and its manufacture. At once both soft and smooth to the hand, the coat is made of a combination of kinky strands of the outer coat and under it, finer fur. The outer coat will be replaced in summer, with the fine underwool growing in fall. Now if the bighorn live in the high country for the winter months to come — as many Sierra bighorn do — the coat must see these animals through double and sometimes triple-digit win
