Penticton HNZ Topflight's Chief Flying instructor: "If you asked the bighorn sheep, how many generations have been listening to helicopters?"

There has to be something missing in the dialogue between the Vancouver Sun reporter Larry Pynn and the chief flying instructor Tim Simmons for HNZ Topflight: 

Simmons argued that the sheep in Snowy have become accustomed to the training flights over the years and are not stressed as sheep would be experiencing helicopters for the first time. “If you asked the bighorn sheep, how many generations have been listening to helicopters? Much like deer in Penticton, they’re completely used to what they see and hear in their environment.” 

A Conversation overheard between the CFI of HNZ and a bighorn sheep:

Just Asking:

"When did you first stop paying attention to HNZ helicopters?"  Baaaaaa!

"Aha!  Never!"

"How many Generations ago?"


Charles Darwin would probably be amazed that deer Bambi and sheep lambs have made an evolutionary leap frog bypassing youth and arrived fresh from the womb as Rams and Ewes.  How else to explain their having no knowledge of early life stresses involving helicopters.  Blocked it out from butting heads.


The lifespan of bighorn sheep in British Columbia is 14 years.


BC Conservation Status Report pegs their life span as  ........ 18 years, which is equivalent to 3 generations.



The easier way to look at how much helicopters have been pestering the Bighorn sheep is to count the number of years the machines have been in existence, especially by the BC Forest Service fighting fires.

BCFS

72 years ago the helicopter arrive; 14 year life span of bighorn sheep means that there has been Five Generations listening to Helicopters.

In those same 72 years there has been one generation of humans listening to helicopters, second generation for 36 years, third generation for 7 years and if the chief flying instructor were to talk to us we would say that his aircraft does create stress within our communities, why else would YVR have a noise tracker monitors?  Why indeed would there be a Press release this very morning on excessive noise being monitored on either side of Burrard Inlet?