Game Animals of America
MOUNTAIN SHEEP
Monograph Number One In The Mentor Reading Course
The mountain sheep (genus Ovis) is a gallant mountaineer. It is a fine, sturdy animal, keen eyed, bold, active and strong, and is always found amid scenery that is grand and inspiring. Its favorite pastures in summer are the treeless slopes above the timber-line; and even in winter, when the raging storms drive the elk and deer down into the valleys, the mountain sheep descends for only a short distance. The mountain sheep is a bold climber. Its legs are robust and strong, and when pursued it can dash down steep declivities in safety.
It is very easy to recognize any adult mountain sheep by the massive round curving horns. No wild animals other than wild sheep have circling horns.
The largest of specimens of wild sheep are found in Asia. There are six species in America. They are scattered from the northern states of Mexico through the Rocky Mountains, almost to the shore of the Arctic zone.
The young of the mountain sheep are born in May or June above the timber-line if possible, among the most dangerous and inaccessible crags and precipices that the mother can find. The lamb’s most dangerous enemy is the eagle, and often the mother cannot protect her young from this foe.
Probably the most familiar of the mountain sheep is the big-horn or Rocky Mountain sheep (Ovis canadensis). Formerly this was quite abundant, but so persistently has it been hunted that the species exists now only in small numbers and in widely separated localities.
The general color of the big-horn is gray brown. They are well fed all the year round. The female has not the long curving horns of the male. Her horns are small, short, erect, and much flattened, in length from five to eight inches.
Other species of mountain sheep are the California or Nelson’s mountain sheep (Ovis nelsoni) a smaller animal than the big-horn and of a pale salmon gray color; the Mexican mountain sheep (Ovis mexicanus) found in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico; the white mountain sheep or Dall’s sheep (Ovis dalli) of Alaska, whose hair is pure white, when it has not been stained by mud or dirt; the black mountain sheep (Ovis stonei) of northern British Colombia, which is distinguishable by the wide spread of its horns, the dark brown color of its sides and the white abdomen; and Fannin’s mountain sheep (Ovis fannini) a newly discovered species which was found first on the Klondike River, Alaska, in 1900.