A wild sheep (Ovis canadensis) of the mountains of western North America, the male of which has massive curved horns. Also called mountain sheep, Rocky Mountain sheep.
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A wild sheep (Ovis canadensis) of the mountains of western North America, the male of which has massive curved horns. Also called mountain sheep, Rocky Mountain sheep.
Ovis canadensis
TAXONOMY
Ovis canadensis Shaw, 1804, Mountains on Bow River, Alberta, Canada.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
French: Mouflon d'Amerique; German: Dickhornschaf; Spanish: Carnero de la Canada, borrego cimarron.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Head and body length is 60–77 in (153–195 cm) in males and 49–60 in (124–153 cm) in females. Maximum weights are 300 lb (137 kg) in males and 200 lb (91 kg) in females, but usually 160–211 lb (73–96 kg) and 105–154 lb (48–70 kg), respectively. Males have massive horns curling round and forward. Color ranges from reddish brown to very dark brown. Undersides, back of legs, rump patch, and muzzle are white.
DISTRIBUTION
Mountains of western North America south to desert ranges of the southwest United States and northern Mexico. Former range was more extensive.
HABITAT
Mountains, foothills, badlands, with cliffs for escape.
BEHAVIOR
Live in small groups of two to nine, with adult males usually separate.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Eat a wide range of grasses, herbs, and shrubs.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Polygamous. Mating takes place in autumn and gestation lasts about 174 days. Females first mate aged two and a half years, males not usually before ages seven or eight. Males establish dominance prior to the rut by displaying and head clashing.
CONSERVATION STATUS
May have numbered one to two million during the nineteenth century, but much lower than that now. Numbers overall are stable and the species is classified as Lower Risk/Conservation Dependent. O. c. weemsi is Critically endangered, O. c. cremnobates is Endangered, and O. c. mexicana is Vulnerable.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
Hunted for meat and trophies.
For more information on bighorn, visit Britannica.com.
A tall (up to 3 ft), heavy (up to 300 lb body weight) wild sheep that lives in inaccessible mountain country where it exercises its principal achievement of prodigious leaping and climbing. Called also Ovis canadensis. Several regional varieties, e.g. O. c. californiana, Californian bighorn sheep.
The bighorn is a heavy, grayish brown animal; the male has heavy, curling horns, while the female has short, straight spikes.
— 'Columbia Encyclopedia (sixth edition)
Tutor's tip: The "bighorn" (kind of sheep) has a "big horn" (horn that is large).
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O. cervina Desmarest |
Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis)[2] is one of three species of mountain sheep in North America and Siberia; the other two species being Ovis dalli, that includes Dall Sheep and Stone's Sheep, and the Siberian Snow sheep Ovis nivicola. The taxononomy continues to be modified as new genetic and morphologic data becomes available but most scientists currently recognize the following subspecies of bighorn:[3][4]
In addition, there are currently two federally endangered populations:[5]
Wild sheep crossed the Bering land bridge from Siberia during the Pleistocene (~750,000 years ago) and, subsequently, spread through western North America as far south as Baja California and northern mainland Mexico.[6] Divergence from their closest Asian ancestor (Snow sheep) occurred about 600,000 years ago[7]. In North America, wild sheep have diverged into two extant species -- Dall sheep that occupy Alaska and northwestern Canada, and bighorn sheep that range from southern Canada to Mexico. However, the status of these species is questionable given that hybridization has occurred between them in their recent evolutionary history.[8]
Two hundred years ago, Bighorn Sheep were widespread throughout the western United States, Canada, and Northern Mexico. Some estimates placed their population at higher than 2 million. However, by around 1900, hunting, competition from domesticated sheep, and diseases had decreased the population to only several thousand. A program of reintroductions, natural parks, and reduced hunting, together with a decrease in domesticated sheep near the end of World War II, allowed the Bighorn Sheep to make a comeback, though not before Ovis canadensis auduboni, a sub-species that lived on the Black Hills, went extinct.
Bighorn sheep were amongst the most admired animals of the Apsaalooka, or Crow, people, and what is today called the Bighorn Mountain Range was central to the Apsaalooka tribal lands. In the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area book, storyteller Old Coyote describes a legend related to the bighorn sheep. A man possessed by evil spirits attempts to kill his heir by pushing the young man over a cliff, but the victim is saved by getting caught in trees. Rescued by bighorn sheep, the man takes the name of their leader, Big Metal. The other sheep grant him power, wisdom, sharp eyes, sure footedness, keen ears, great strength and a strong heart. Big Metal returns to his people with the message that the Apsaalooka people will survive only so long as the river winding out of the mountains is known as the Bighorn River.[9]
Bighorn Sheep are hunted for their meat and horns, which are used in ceremonies, as food, and as hunting trophies. They also serve as a source of eco-tourism, as tourists come to see the famed Bighorn Sheep in their native habitat. [citation needed]
Bighorn Sheep are named for the large, curved horns borne by the males, or rams. Females, or ewes, also have horns, but they are short with only a slight curvature. They range in color from light brown to grayish or dark, chocolate brown, with a white rump and lining on the back of all four legs. Rocky Mountains bighorn females weigh up to 200 pounds (90 kg), and males occasionally exceed 300 pounds (135 kg). In contrast, Sierra Nevada bighorn females weigh about 140 pounds (63 kg) with males weighing around 200 pounds (90 kg). Males' horns can weigh up to 30 lb (14 kg), as much as the rest of the bones in the male's body.[10]
Bighorn sheep graze on grasses and browse shrubs, particularly in fall and winter, and seek minerals at natural salt licks. Bighorns are well adapted to climbing steep terrain where they seek cover from predators such as coyotes, eagles, and cougars. They live in large herds, but because they do not have the strict dominance hierarchy of the mouflon -- that is, they do not automatically follow a single leader ram, unlike the Asiatic ancestors of the domestic sheep -- they cannot be domesticated.[citation needed]
Prior to the mating season or "rut", the rams attempt to establish a dominance hierarchy that determines access to ewes for mating. It is during the prerut period that most of the characteristic horn clashing occurs between rams, although this behavior may occur to a limited extent throughout the year.[11] Ram's horns can frequently exhibit damage from repeated clashes. Bighorn ewes exhibit a six-month gestation. In temperate climates, the peak of the rut occurs in November with one, or rarely two, lambs being born in May. The lambs are then weaned when they reach 4-6 months.
Bighorn sheep are highly susceptible to certain diseases carried by domestic sheep such as scabies and pneumonia; additional mortality occurs as a result of accidents involving rock fall or falling off cliffs (a hazard of living in steep, rugged terrain).
Bighorn Sheep are considered good indicators of land health because the species is sensitive to many human-induced environmental problems. In addition to their aesthetic value, Bighorn Sheep are considered desirable game animals by hunters. The Rocky Mountain and Sierra Nevada bighorn occupy the cooler mountainous regions of Canada and the United States. In contrast, the Desert Bighorn Sheep subspecies are indigenous to the hot desert ecosystems of the Southwest United States.
In 1940, Cowan taxonomically split the species into seven subspecies:[6]
However, starting in 1993, Ramey and colleagues,[7][12] using DNA testing, have shown that this division into seven subspecies is largely illusory. The latest science shows that Bighorn Sheep is one species, with 3 subspecies O. c. canadensis, O. c. nelsoni and O. c. sierrae. O. c. sierrae is a genetically distinct subspecies that only occurs in the Sierra Nevada. O. c. nelsoni occur throughout the southwestern desert regions of the U.S. and Mexico, whereas O. c. canadensis occupy the U.S. and Canadian Rocky Mountains and the northwestern U.S.
The Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep is the provincial mammal of Alberta and the state animal of Colorado and as such is incorporated into the symbol for the Colorado Department of Wildlife [13].
Bighorn sheep were once known by the scientific identification argali or argalia due to assumption that they were the same animal as the Asiatic Argali (Ovis ammon).[14] Lewis and Clark recorded numerous sightings of Ovis canadensis in the journals of their exploration--sometimes using the name Argalia. In addition, they recorded the use of bighorn sheep by the Shoshone in making bows.[15] William Clark's Track Map produced after the expedition in 1814 indicates a tributary of the Yellowstone River named Argalia Creek and a tributary of the Missouri River named Argalia River, both in what is today Montana. Neither of these tributaries retained these names however. The Bighorn River another tributary of the Yellowstone, and its tributary stream the Little Bighorn River indicated on Clark's map did retain their names, the latter being the namesake of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.[16]
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