found it: these are mountain goats.
(thanks for the lyrics..)
pascal
I'd love to visit that area someday- maybe next year.
Actually the lyrics were a clue. But I understand how an error could be made.
The third shot is the best, although the first is pretty good too. The neck belts are crazy distracting, but since we've either ate and/or killed nearly every animal of size and beauty in our neck of the world, it's probably a necessity to track it all and remove the creature's last shread of dignity.
Antelope are gorgeous creatures. We used to have them here in the Mojave Desert as recently as maybe one hundred-twenty years ago.
In the far western end of the desert there's the 'Antelope Valley.' Now days there's not an antelope to be found. Seems that when the railroad was being built in the area hundreds were killed to supplement the construction worker's diet. There were thousands of them, the high grasslands were a near perfect environment for them. Petroglyphs the Indians made in the area depict the abundance and indicate they were an integral part of desert native life for thousands of years.
After the railroad was completed they started getting in the way. The herds, although decimated previously, were pests and the creatures slowed the schedules down because they were too stupid to stay out of the way and interfered- they kept getting hit. So the railroad began promoting 'hunting parties.' People would pay to come up and participate in mass slaughters, where the animals would be chased to exhaustion, herded into groups of hundreds and hundreds and shot to satisfy blood-lust or something. None would be taken for food. Tastes were too refined. I've read some exceptionally vivid accounts.
I suppose the niche they filled needed to gotten rid of. They were a mainstay for cougars that would occupy the edge environments in reasonable proximatey to a source of water (nearby mountains).
The Antelope Valley is quickly being filled by homes and probably at least a million people by now. I had to go to Arizona a couple years ago to get shots of some for a project. I don't mind. The kids live close and at least I didn't have to drive all the way to the Badlands to get some shots in their natural habitat. Although I might next year.
