Bighorn sheep really do have big horns! The horns of an adult ram weigh about 30 pounds, making up 8-12% of its body weight. Bighorn sheep can be found in a wide range of national parks across the country and in a variety of landscapes—notably Rocky Mountain, Glacier, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Zion, Grand Canyon, Big Bend, and Badlands national parks.
Bighorn sheep keep their horns throughout their life and don’t shed them. The males use them to establish dominance during the “rut,” in which they slam into each other with tremendous force and violence at speeds up to 40 mph. The loud clashing of their horns can be heard up to a mile away.
And here’s some bonus bighorn news: new information from Canyonlands National Park finds that bighorn sheep thrived during the COVID pandemic, likely due to the lack of human presence. One researcher at the Utah park counted 80 lambs for every 100 ewes, which is more than double the number of young during the previous 30 years. The findings led to a call to action to reserve more space in national parks for animals so they can thrive undisturbed by humans. The article was published in “The Revelator.”
NATIONAL PARK NEWS
