Yellowstone Big Horn Ram

The bighorn sheeps technical name is Ovis Canadensis. The horns of a male bighorn can weigh up to 30 lbs (13.5 kg)more than all the bones ... more

by Wildlife Fine Art

Title

Yellowstone Big Horn Ram

Artist

Wildlife Fine Art

Medium

Photograph - Prints / Licensing

Description

The bighorn sheeps technical name is Ovis Canadensis. The horns of a male bighorn can weigh up to 30 lbs (13.5 kg)more than all the bones
in his body combined. Females (ewes) also have horns, but they are of smaller size. Fall and winter come. The ram begins to rut and stops eating as much. Also during the winter the quality of the sheep's feed is decreased compared to summer. This causes a ring to form on the rams horn. The first major ring forms when the ram is in his second winter and he is 1 1/2 years old, and then every year after. These are horn segments deepest and darker rings that go all the way around the horn not each individual ripple. For example, a ram with ten horn segments is actually 9.5 years old.
Two male bighorn sheep, when they run towards each other for attacking, acquire a speed equal to nearly 15 miles per hour! Moreover,
the clashes of their sound echoes in the mountains. Male bighorn sheep have large horn cores, enlarged cornual and frontal sinuses and internal bony septa. These adaptations serve to protect the brain by absorbing the impact of clashes.
Bighorn sheep live in large flocks, and do not typically follow a single leader ram, unlike the mouflon, the ancestor of the domestic sheep, which has a strict dominance hierarchy. 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. Ram's horns can frequently exhibit damage from repeated clashes.
Centered around Mount Everts, the bighorn sheep population in Yellowstone fluctuates from 100-400 animals.

Uploaded

December 26th, 2015