At Black Gap Wildlife Management Area, a group of dedicated conservationists put their skills to work, building special rainwater catchment systems, aka “guzzlers.” These guzzlers were designed to provide water for bighorn sheep and any other animal looking for a drink in the desert.
You may be wondering, "How did the bighorn survive historically without guzzlers?" Bighorn, as well as other wildlife that utilize guzzlers now, generally survived well without guzzlers. That is, the wildlife that inhabit arid environments have through time adapted to these dry environmental conditions. Wildlife species cope with the scarcity of water by making use of free-standing water (e.g. springs, seeps, tinajas, etc.) when available, as well as obtaining water from the plants they eat. This enables them to withstand several days without water.
However, with changing land-use practices (e.g. irrigation farming), the water table has dropped in several areas causing flow reduction in some springs and completely drying out other springs and seeps. This effectively reduced the number of available free-standing water sources. Also, and as you might suspect, tinajas (i.e. natural water holding depressions typically found in canyons and rock slabs) only have water if it rains.
Guzzlers are not a permanent source of water, but rather a temporary source which allows animals to get through short dry spells. You can view guzzlers as man-made tinajas, because much like tinajas, guzzlers also dry up if there is no rain.
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