Bighorn sheep are one of the common rocky mountain mammals. Here are 9 facts about these nimble footed inhabitants of the Rockies.
In all of my exploration of the Rocky Mountains I’ve seen a lot of animals. Some of them are very common and I’ve seen a lot, but others not as much. I’ve only seen these animals a few times, including once in Yellowstone National Park. That time they were high up on some cliffs, looking like little dots on the landscape. Despite their distance it was cool to see them and that memory still stands out in my mind.
9 Bighorn Sheep Facts
Bighorn Sheep are a medium sized grazing animal. Their body is mostly a brown color with a whitish belly. They also have a whitish muzzle, kind of like they’ve been pushing their nose into a sack of flour. However, their most distinctive sign is their curved horns.
Males are called rams. Females are called ewes.
Males have thick, curved, ridged horns that curve backwards and almost circle their entire ears. Females also have those big, thick, curved horns. The difference is that the female horns are only a half circle as opposed to the males which are almost a full circle.
Bighorn sheep are one of the common Rocky Mountain animals. Look at those horns that are curved almost into a circle – a male.
In the fall these animals prepare for winter by growing a thick winter coat. In fact, they grow a thick, double-layer coat of hair to help keep them warm during the cold winter of the Rockies. Then in the springtime they shed that extra coat.
These animals live in high, rugged, inaccessible cliffs. Those high cliffs have little meadows and plateaus that serve as feeding areas for them. The cliffs also serve to protect them from predators because they are just so hard to get to.
In the fall bighorn sheep males engage in the incredible rut. At this time of year two males will face off with each other and may charge at each other, bashing horns. The males exert a huge amount of force when they do this and the sound can be heard for miles. These contests may last for hours and hours. The winner gains the right to mate with a female.
They can be found living in cliffs, mountain meadows and slopes in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. There are three sub-species, the Rocky Mountain Bighorn (this one I’m talking about there), the Sierra Nevada Bighorn, and the Desert Bighorn. The Desert bighorn sheep can be found in the deserts of Utah.
They are ruminants, similar to many other grazing animals.
Bighorn sheep are excellent jumpers. They are able to jump up to 20 feet from one rocky to another without losing their balance!