Barbary Sheep (Ammotragus lervia)

Origin: North Africa
Sighted at: Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, San Antonio, TX

This is the last of my photos from the Natural Bridge trip! I was really fortunate to visit the park with my father at a time when I really needed a pick-me-up. The park was odd in that the first seven minutes had dozens of animals representing a huge array of species. Then there was nothing for another twenty minutes. Then a couple things near the end. It was badly paced, but I enjoyed the trip all the same.

The Barbary sheep is a type of wild goat that lives in very hot, very rocky areas. The name “Barbary” is taken from the “Barbary Coast” – the Eurocolonial name for the northwest coast of Africa, named for the Berber people who live in that part of the world. The Berber word for the animal is the “auodad.”

Barbary sheep are a “vulnerable” species, which is one step above endangered on the conservation scale.