A ROCKY TIME FOR UTAH’S BIGHORNS

Visitors to Zion National Park in southern Utah are being asked to be on alert for something besides dramatic red rock vistas: Coughing bighorn sheep.

Excessive coughing is a symptom of pneumonia, which can be deadly to the animals, and wildlife officials are trying to determine how much the sickness has spread, said Zion spokeswoman Aly Baltrus. About 500 bighorn sheep in a herd of 800 from the area live on slick rock areas on the east side of the park, Baltrus said.

Two bighorn sheep have already been killed in recent weeks to diagnose the illness after a female was found with the cough on July 20, she said.

Zion officials are asking visitors to report where they hear the coughing so park biologists can track the illness.

“You can hear it from a distance,” Baltrus said. “It’s very much like a human cough.”