Nevada State Animal

Desert Bighorn Sheep Ovis canadensis nelsoni Adopted: ADOPTIONDATE

Nevada Law

Nevada State Animal: Desert Bighorn Sheep
Photograph: by Andrew Barna / Wikipedia
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Image

The following information was excerpted from the Nevada Revised Statutes, Title 19, Chapter 235, Section 235.070.

TITLE 19-MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS RELATED TO GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS
CHAPTER 235 - STATE EMBLEMS; GIFTS AND ENDOWMENTS
MISCELLANEOUS STATE EMBLEMS
SECTION 235.070

NRS 235.070 State animal. The animal known as the Desert Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni) is hereby designated as the official state animal of the State of Nevada.

(Added to NRS by 1973, 315)

Sources...

"Nevada Revised Statutes." Nevada Legislature. 2009. 7 Apr 2009

"New State Animal." Nevada State Journal 12 Apr 1973: Page 10.

Shearer, Benjamin F. and Barbara S. State Names, Seals, Flags and Symbols: A Historical Guide Third Edition, Revised and Expanded. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 3 Sub edition, 2001.

Additional Information

Nevada State Animal: Desert Bighorn Sheep
Photographs, prints and posters

State Animal: Desert Bighorn Sheep: Nevada Riches: The Land and People of the Silver State. Nevada Cooperative Libraries Automated Network.

Desert Bighorn Sheep: Nevada Department of Wildlife.

Desert Bighorn: The Living Desert, Palm Desert/Indian Wells, California.

Bighorn Sheep: Article about bighorn sheep from DesertUSA.com. Includes complete information and short movies.

Ovis canadensis (Bighorn Sheep) Information and pictures from the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology's Animal Diversity Web.

Ovis canadensis Shaw, 1804: Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Here you will find authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world.

Ovis canadensis nelsoni (Desert Bighorn Sheep): CalPhoto photographs. The Biodiversity Sciences Technology group (BSCIT), a part of the Berkeley Natural History Museums at the University of California, Berkeley.

State Animals: Complete list of official state animals.

More symbols & emblems: Complete list of official Nevada state symbols.

Desert Bighorn Sheep
by Dale E. Toweill, Ph.D

Desert Bighorn Sheep, by Dale E. Toweill, Ph.D. 56 pages. Nature Trails Press (2003) The Desert Bighorn Sheep, Nevada's state animal, is the largest native animal inhabiting the deserts of North America. The abundance of information about its lifestyle and habitat presented in this book is enhanced by page after page of beautiful color photographs.

Counting Sheep
edited by Gary Paul Nabhan

Counting Sheep: Twenty Ways of Seeing Desert Bighorn, edited by Gary Paul Nabhan. 261 pages. University of Arizona Press (July 1, 1993) Send a number of nature writers out into the same unrelenting stretch of Sonoran Desert. Then consider telling them to focus their attention on just one animal-Ovis canadensis, popularly called the desert bighorn or borrego cimarrón-and have them write about it. Have them write from makeshift blinds or from behind a gun barrel. Have them write while walking across the Cabeza Prieta at night, or while flying over it trying to radio-collar the creatures. Have them write from actual sightings of the animals or simply from their tracks and droppings. What would result from such an exercise is Counting Sheep, an unusual anthology that demonstrates the range of possibilities in nature writing.