Amazing video of Bighorn sheep grazing through a valley neighborhood

An unusual scene was captured on cell phone video by a La Quinta man Thursday as he and a friend drove through the Tradition Golf Club off Avenue 52. Roughly 20 endangered Bighorn Sheep are visible grazing in the front yard and courtyard of a couple of homes.

The Bighorn Institute says this year they’ve heard of as many as 30 sheep spotted on the SilverRock golf course, and at PGA West. Both courses are just to the east of where this video was taken by CBS Local 2 viewer Justin Morreale.

The Bighorn Institute says the sheep are attracted to the lush vegetation on the Valley floor, however, close contact to humans increases the risk of disease spreading. “Bighorn have not fared well in urban areas. There were many sick lambs this year on these golf courses, a ram ate oleander and died, a ram was hit and killed by a car on Jefferson, and four sheep (including one lamb) have drowned in the canal along the golf courses here,” said a Bighorn Institute representative via Facebook.

This is especially worrisome because some sheep are showing signs of pneumonia at Joshua Tree National Park, and in the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountain ranges, including one lamb collected at SilverRock that tested positive for the disease.