The Bighorn Sheep

The Bighorn Sheep can be found in the Rocky Mountains, parts of Nevada, Texas, California and Mexico. In warm months bighorns can be found in the valleys, in cold months they graze on the mountain sides.

Female bighorns and their young live in groups of five to fifteen. Males live in groups of two to five. In the winter, groups of ewes (females) may band together to form a herd of 100.

Bighorns are herbivores, which means they eat plants exclusively. In the warm months they will chomp on grasses, clover, and sedges. During winter, they eat woody plants like willow and sage. Bighorns that live in the desert eat brushy plants like holly and cactus. Bighorns are cud chewers, so when they're not eating they'll lie down and chew.

In the fall, male bighorns will have head-butting contests to constitute dominance. The males run at each other in speeds up to twenty miles an hour, and slam their heads together. The contests can last up to twenty hours.

Females have their babies on hard-to-reach cliffs. They have one lamb, and the baby can climb and walk the first day. The lamb will stay in the place it was born for about a week then it will start to travel out with its mom. Lambs are weaned when they are about five months old. Male bighorn lambs leave their mother and join a male group when they are between 2 and 4 years old. Females stay in their mother's group their whole life.


I took the picture at the Syracuse Zoo (thus the fence). More zoo animals are a-coming!
Source: http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/bighornsheep.htm