Terms: Male—buck; female—doe; young—fawn.
Where found: In the summertime they are well scattered over the park and may possibly be seen along the trails at the edges of open meadows along the roadside, or near developed areas, day or night. The population varies from year to year and of recent years from a maximum of 1200 to a minimum of about 600.
BIGHORN
Ovis canadensis
An interesting inhabitant of the roughest, rockiest mountain country as well as the high arctic alpine meadows is the Bighorn or Rocky Mountain Sheep. The sure-footedness with which they will dash, in full flight, up or down seemingly impossible slopes is truly amazing. Negotiating with ease places that the most skillful mountaineer, with all his climbing equipment, can scale only by slow and laborious means. Even the picturesque ram with his great recurved horns can leap from point to point with grace and agility.
It might well be mentioned here that the fable of the ram habitually jumping and landing on his horns is not true. They are used, however, as fighting equipment and the shock they can withstand is terrific as the rams square off about thirty yards apart, then dash at each other until they collide head-on with all the speed and power they can muster. This continues until one or the other finally retires groggily from the scene. The ewe also has horns but they are short and only slightly curved.
Bighorn
Bighorns eat practically any of the plant life that grows within their domain, which is preferably near and above timber line in the summertime. There they remain during the summer. In the winter they select either open, windswept slopes that will be kept free from snow or else drift down to the lower, more protected places in the valleys.
The bighorn ewe has one or two lambs which are born in the spring. Their lambs soon learn to play like our domestic sheep, and before they are very old are given their mountain-climbing lessons by watchful mothers. When still quite small they can follow the band with almost as much skill as the older ones.
Their ancient enemies are the wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, bobcats and, in the case of the young, the eagles. In Yellowstone, wolves, lions and bobcats are now rare in occurrence. These create a hazardous life for the mountain sheep. Then with the addition of man and his impact upon them they have had trouble even holding their own and in recent years are threatening to become another of our vanishing species, especially because of the keen competition with elk for forage.