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Bighorn sheep/Mountain goat
Ovis canadensis.
52.9466, -117.926
Field Notes
Description:
Bighorn sheep are named for the large, curved horns borne by the rams (males). Ewes (females) also have horns, but they are shorter with less 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. Males typically weigh 127–316 pounds (58–143 kg), are 36–41 inches (91–100 cm) tall at the shoulder, and 69–79 inches (180–200 cm) long from the nose to the tail. Females are typically 75–188 pounds (34–85 kg), 30–36 inches (76–91 cm) tall and 54–67 inches (140–170 cm) long.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 have pre-orbital glands on the anterior corner of each eye, inguinal glands in the groin and pedal glands on each foot. Secretions from these glands may support dominance behaviors.
Bighorns from the Rocky Mountains are relatively large, with males that occasionally exceed 500 lb (230 kg) and females that exceed 200 lb (90 kg). In contrast, Sierra Nevada Bighorn males weigh up to only 200 lb (90 kg) and females to 140 lb (60 kg). Males' horns can weigh up to 30 lb (14 kg), as much as the rest of the bones in the male's body.
Habitat:
They live in the Rocky Mountain House, usually eat grass, snow. Bighorn sheep have many enemies. These enemies include cougars, golden eagles, wolves, coyotes, bears, bobcats, and lynx. Golden eagles attack young lambs. So they can possibly get eaten or killed by one of those animals.. Obviously a species cannot survive without its natural habitat, except perhaps in a zoo. It follows then that the fundamental unit in the conservation of biodiversity is not the species but the habitat.
An organism may have more than one habitat. During the summer many of our migratory waterfowl have breeding habitats in the arctic tundra, but they winter on the waterways and marshes of the southern United States. Mule deer of the Great Basin spend the summer in mountain forests, but winter snows drive them to lower elevation sagebrush zones where they can forage more easily. To ensure that there will always be migratory species such as these we need to protect not only the two habitats at the extremes of their seasonal movements but also the migration routes in between that serve as resting and feeding habitats.
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