The Light In High Places: A Naturalist Looks at Wyoming Wilderness–Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Cowboys, and Other Rare Species
Author(s): Joe Hutto (Author)
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Publication Date: 15 Nov. 2009
Language: English
Print length: 256 pages
ISBN-10: 1602397031
ISBN-13: 9781602397033
Book Description
Naturalist Joe Hutto’s latest adventures in wildlife observation take him to Wyoming’s Wind River Mountains. Hutto is living in a tent at 12,000 feet, where blizzards occur in July and where human wants become irrelevant and human needs can become a matter of life and deathto study the Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep. The population of these rare alpine sheep is in decline. The lambs are dying in unprecedented numbers. Hutto’s job is to find out why.
For months at a time, he follows the bighorn herds, meets mountain lions and bears, weathers injury and storms, and beautifully observes the incredible splendor of the Rocky Mountains.
Hutto has a deep connection to Wyoming, having managed a large cattle ranch in his past. He weaves Wyoming’s history of the cowboy, mountain ecology, and the lives of the bighorn sheep into a beautiful flowing narrative. Ultimately, he discovers that the lambs are dying of a form of nutritional muscular dystrophy due to selenium deficiency, which is caused by acid raina grim ecological disaster caused by human pollution. Here is a new twist on a cautionary tale, and a new voice, eloquently ex-pressing the urgency that we mend our ways.
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About the Author
Joe Hutto: Joe Hutto is a biologist, Emmy Awardwinning filmmaker, and keen observer of animal behavior. His first book, Illumination in the Flatwoods, was a critically acclaimed story of his magical experience raising a brood of wild turkeys, which became an award-winning documentary called My Life as a Turkey. He lives in Lander, Wyoming.
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