SAGUARO SPINE PENETRATED BIGHORN SHEEP SKULL

Abstract

Animals that inhabit vegetative communities where thorns and spines are common should be capable of moving while avoiding injury from thorns and spines. On 21 December 2003, we found that a saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) spine had penetrated the lacrimal bone into the orbit of a desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) in south-central Arizona. The animal was observed with clinical infectious keratoconjunctivitis and was blind for 3 weeks prior to death. It is likely that the animal collided with a saguaro cactus after she became blinded by disease.