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During Breeding Season Rocky Mountain Bighorns take long runs at each other and smack horns, a tough way to impress the girls. |
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King of the Mountain, Bighorns usually will be found close to cliff escarpments like this one to be able to more rapidly get away from their predators. |
Native Americans and
early settlers prized bighorn meat as the most enjoyable
of all American
big-game menu choices. The
Native Americans also used the horns to fashion ceremonial
spoons and handles for their utensils. Horns have
also been popular for many centuries as trophies for
proud hunters.
The natural range of The Rocky Mountain Bighorn
is from southern
Canada
to Colorado. During the summer they
inhabit high elevation alpine meadows,
grassy mountain slopes and foothill
country, all near rugged, rocky
cliffs and bluffs,
allowing for quick escape from mountain lion, wolves
or bears. In winter, Bighorn prefer south facing
slopes from 3,000 and 6,000 elevation where
annual
snowfall
is
less and the sun and wind help bare off the slopes,
because they cannot paw through
deep snow to feed.
Bighorn Sheep weigh inbetween 115 and 280
lbs. The Bighorn's body is compact and muscular. Rams
can be recognized by his massive curved horns. The
horns curl back over the ears, down then up around the
cheek.
When a
ram reaches 7 or 8 years of age,
he can have
a set of horns with a full curl and a spread
of up to 33 inches.
Ewes horns are smaller than the
rams and have shorter and never exceed
half a curl.
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Bighorn Lamb |
Bighorn
have excellent eyesight, which aids in jumping and
gaining footholds in the rock.
They move up and down cliff faces
with amazing ease using ledges sometimes only 2 inches
wide for footholds as they
bounce from ledge to ledge over spans
as wide
as 20 feet with all the abondon as an 8 year old
on a trampoline. Their keen eyesight helps them
watch other animals at distances of up to a mile
away.
Their
cloven
hooves
are sharp-edged, elastic, and concave
and are a huge asset in their vertical home.
Bighorn sheep
are gregarious and may form herds of
over 100 animals, but small
groups
of 8-10 are
more common. Mature
males usually stay apart in
bachelor
herds separate the from females and young
for
most of the year until the the rutt.
Rutting
season is in the autumn
and early winter, and births
take place in the spring.
Bighorn sheep are perhaps
best known for the head-to-head
combat between males. The
size of a ram's horns is
a sign of rank, and the
mass of the horns (as much
as 30 pounds) is used as
a weapon against his opponent
as he smashes into him
at speeds of 20 miles per
hour. Males do not defend
territories but rather
engage in battles over
mating access to a particular
ewe. Male dominance
is determined by horn
size and their ability to use them to their best
advantage,
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Nice Ram, Yellowstone National Park |
Female bighorn
usually do not breed
until their second or third
year
in the wild. Due to
competition, males do not
usually mate
until they are 7 years
old, not because they don't want
to or can't but because
they
are not yet tough
enough to win the battles.
Most
sheep live over 10 years,
with a maximum
of 20 years.
Ewes are protective of
their young for
many months.
In the spring yearlings
are abandoned while
the ewe is giving
birth to her
next lamb. Bighorn sheep
find safety in numbers
as do most herd animals
they and are
vigilant
for predators
such as Coyotes and Mountain
Lions. Newborns
are natural cliff climbers and are able to follow their mothers
at
a good pace over
the rocky terrain after
the first week.
Within
a few weeks of
birth.. lambs are
completeley
weaned by 4-6
months of age.
Bighorns are primarily
grazers, consuming grasses,
sedges, and forbs, but
it will take some browse
when preferred
food is scarce. Bighorns
are active during the day,
feeding morning, noon and night,
then
lying down to chew their
cud.
Threatened with eventual extinction, Bighorn
numbers are only one-tenth the population
that existed when
Europeans first began exploiting
the Rockies. most
sheep live over 10 years, with a maximum
of 20 years. |