Searching For Bighorns | Wildlife Filmmaking
A few weeks ago I got a tip from a photographer friend about a great place to see Bighorn Sheep here in Oregon. Turns out, it’s only about a three hour drive to where they like to hang out, so off we went to look for them. This is part of the adventure of wildlife filmmaking!
Bighorn sheep love rugged, steep, and rocky terrain with grassy slopes and meadows nearby. They are extremely vulnerable to predators like coyotes, bears, and mountain lions, and the rocky bluffs and terrain provide great protection from them. But this also presents a challenge when it comes to filming or photographing them, as they are often in hard to reach or even inaccessible areas.
We were told that the best place to see them would be right off of the interstate, dispersed along the cliff face and bluffs that overlook the Columbia River Gorge – perfect habitat for these masters of balance and agility. Normally I prefer to be out away from people, away from the hustle and bustle of traffic, but, sometimes it’s unavoidable. I honestly don’t ever recommend filming right alongside a busy highway, but we found a safer place to park with more room a little ways further down.
It’s truly remarkable to see these magnificent animals in person. We happen to have found them right before the beginning of the rut, so all of the males, or rams, will soon be battling for the top spot and rights to partner up with the ladies, or ewes as they are called.
They were still quite a ways off, and I was zoomed all the way in… which on my camera and lens (Canon 70D & Sigma 60-600mm f4.5-6.3) with the 2x teleconverter on, I was reaching just over 1900mm (1.6 crop sensor) x (2x teleconverter) x (600mm focal length) = 1920mm…. you’ll notice a little atmospheric distortion, or this weird warping effect on the image, due to heat waves rising up from the ground, basically like a mirage only you can see through it. Ideally it would be better to have found them early in the morning before the heat of the day, which would have greatly reduced the amount of atmospheric distortion, however, at focal lengths greater than 1000mm, it’s often quite common to see. But since they were so far off, I decided it was worth filming anyways.
You can tell the differences between the Rams and Ewes by their horns, as rams have these magnificent curved horns that we so often associate with bighorn sheep. The Ewes have shorter straight horns and are a little smaller in stature. When the big males face off for battle, they appear to take a page right out of a western movie, walking away from each other, then turning around in a duel fashion, and then lunging toward their competitor and battering their horns in a thunderous clash that can exceed 800lbs of force. However we were too early to see this kind of behavior, as the rut often doesn’t peak until sometime in mid November.
Bighorn Sheep once ranged throughout Oregon in much greater numbers… but by the early 1900’s they had died off due to over hunting, diseases, and competition with livestock. Historically, Oregon had two species of bighorn sheep, the larger, Rocky Mountain Bighorns, which resided in the northeastern mountainous regions, and California Bighorns (which I’m filming here), occupied pretty much all the suitable habitat on the eastern side of the cascade range.
In the late 1930s, wildlife managers in Oregon reintroduced Rocky Mountain Bighorns in the south eastern portion of the state, only to see this small population fail as well, until they realized that Rocky Mountain Bighorns historically didn’t exist in this section. And a few years later, they reintroduced the California Bighorns which not only succeeded, but thrived.
These bighorns here that I am filming are part of a protected population of California Bighorns that are instrumental in the recovery of this species here in Oregon. It’s so remarkable to see how resilient these animals are, I mean they are thriving right off of an insanely busy highway!!
After filming the bighorn sheep for about 45 minutes, we made our way back to our campsite along the John Day river, just a quick 30 minute drive from where the bighorns were. Seeing them traverse the steep slopes of the Columbia Gorge was pretty amazing, but it was also a relief to leave the side of the freeway towards the safety of camp.
As the sun began to fade, it began to appear as though the great horned owls weren’t going to give us any opportunities to film or photograph them…. but then one suddenly silhouetted itself in the fading light, which was really awesome to see.
It was such an amazing day, but after all the running around and not properly getting anything to eat, I was starving so it was about time to get to cooking. There’s something to just sitting in the silence of the night, listening to the sounds of nature, and just reflecting on the day. It didn’t take long until a chorus of howls erupted from a nearby group of coyotes. A near perfect ending to the day.
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