Historical Distribution: (Cowan's 1940 taxonomy). Records indicate at least 97 populations of desert bighorn occurred in California at one point.
Current Distribution: (Shackleton, 1997). Today, 61 bighorn populations remain (Toweill & Geist, 1999). The Recovery Plan for Bighorn Sheep in the Peninsular Ranges, California (2000) indicates 8 ewe subpopulations in Riverside, Imperial, and San Diego counties from the San Jacinto Mountains to the Mexican border.
Bighorn sheep live in the western United States, western Canada, Baja California and Sonora, Mexico.
Adapted from www.d-maps.com according to IUCN fact sheet. Click here or on map for detailed distribution (IUCN).
Hall (1981)
Hansen (1980)
Risenhoover & Bailey (1985)
Shackleton (1997)
Ostermann et al. (2001)
USFWS (2000)
USGS website (2002)