Bighorn sheep - description, habitat, lifestyle

It's nice to know that there is a lot of beauty on our planet. For example, a beautiful bighorn sheep, or a bighorn, lives in a mountainous area. This animal looks very beautiful, especially against the background of snow-covered landscapes.

Description of the species

The bighorn sheep belongs to the horned family. The animal is a hoofed ruminant. His physique is rather large, downed, muscular. The structure of the body resembles the structure of mountain goats, as they also live in mountainous terrain and are forced to move around the territory of high-mountain ridges. The length of the body in males reaches 170 cm, in females - up to about 150. The maximum weight of an adult male can reach 150 kg, and this is at a time when there is a lot of food on the meadows.

In comparison with the body, the head is small, has a wedge-shaped muzzle. The eyes are small, ears neat and pointed.Cervical shortened. Thick and short limbs.

Male horns adorn the male animal - long and spiral. Their diameter at the base - 35 cm, and at the end of a sharp, turned out. Females have horns much more modest.

The body of the ram is protected from frost by thick white fur. On the back it gets a milky shade, and on the sides it turns into a dark color, brown. When it is warm, the fur of the bighorn sheep is short, but with the arrival of autumn, the change of coat begins, the upper parts of the guard hairs break off, and a spinous undercoat begins to appear, as well as more fluffy hairs. They have a slightly lighter color that will make animals more inconspicuous on the background of snow.

Bighorn sheep have features when molting. Initially, this process begins in young individuals, then the queue comes for male and female juveniles. After the cold, molting occurs in the first part of May and may last until the end of June. But, if the female has offspring, then the change of fur can be delayed until August.

The hairline is always renewed in the abdomen and sides. The hair on the limbs changes last.When the first month of winter arrives, the change is complete.

There are varieties of these sheep, which include:

• Putoransky - was entered in the Red Book due to the fact that there is a danger of destruction of this species;
• Yakut;
• Okhotsk;
• Koryak and others

Habitats

The most common habitats of this bovine species are Siberia and Chukotka, Kamchatka and Sakhalin. It is believed that a larger number of snow sheep live in Yakutia. But they do not live everywhere, but only in those places where there are rocks. There it is easier to escape from all sorts of predators. The habitat of animals is medium and high mountainous areas, less often - plateaus.

Bark is always in the same habitat zone, and rarely leave it, only if hunger makes you look for food.There are very small movements associated with the change of season. When the weather is raging, the ram hides in various shelters, and most often it is either a cave or a rock niche. It is warm there due to the fact that a kind of litter consisting of fur and dried litter gradually accumulates under the animal.

Life in the snow

These animals are active during the day. But when it is time for bright nights, some representatives may graze at a later time. All day they are on the road in search of food. If the weather is too hot, the ram can afford to rest during the day several times.

How long each meal lasts, and how much time between them - depends entirely on such factors as weather conditions, availability and abundance of food, as well as the presence of blood-sucking insects.

When you need to rest, the bistro creates for itself comfortable conditions, which consist in the fact that the hooves trample down the groove in the ground. Usually, a place is selected only in the area where the terrain is open, and no predator will suddenly be able to get close and attack.This may be the top of the gorge or ridge saddle.

In search of food, the ram goes to the mountain gorges, especially if there are rivers or streams there. But very often they try not to leave the hill, and if a possible danger appears, they escape, deftly climbing the hill.

Nutrition

Spending time almost constantly chewing food, the ram eats a lot of feed. In this, he is helped by a developed chewing apparatus, which contributes to grinding not only fresh vegetation, but even has adapted to process spines, not less prickly spikelets. The bighorn sheep has an intestine so long that it is 30 times larger than the body itself, which is why it doesn’t suffer from eating large amounts of food.

The animal eats up almost all the vegetation on the land that it meets, including succulent grasses, mushrooms and lichen, existing even on bare rocks. But all this abundance happens in the summer season. When autumn comes, various berries appear in the menu. In winter, the sheep is more difficult, but under the snow cover it finds dried grass, moss, rhizomes, fallen berries and thorns, lichen.They dig up the snow with their front hooves. Unfortunately, until the young greens, many animals are so depleted that they die, unable to withstand the constant feeling of hunger.

Collective coexistence

In summer, adults live together, united in small herds, in which there are up to 6 rams. There are both males and females here. Some males, especially the oldest, prefer to live completely apart. But when autumn comes, the horned horns unite, forming a whole herd, numbering up to 50 individuals. The younger generation, and the sheep of this and last year of birth belong to him, have not yet left their mother, so puberty comes late to this species - in the 3rd year of life.

This is the most favorable time, since the blood-sucking parasites have already disappeared, there is a lot of vegetation. But this period quickly ends with the onset of frost. And then the herd breaks up into small groups. Already in October there are heavy snowfalls, and sheep are moving into the forest zone. But still this place should be located near the rocks, which are a reliable shelter for these animals.

Breeding

Here, at the upper border of the forest, rut begins. This time is usually on the November or December days. At 5-6 females, about three applicants appear.

Events develop dramatically. Adult, experienced males, who are already 5 years old, are ruthlessly expelled by all young. And themselves, when the marriage time has passed, they stay with the group for some time, leaving in January. During the rut, there are small clashes between the suitors, which are accompanied by collisions with horns. Then rivals diverge. The winner usually leaves the loser alone, but it happens that during this period the males die from their fellows.

Lambs appear just when a lot of vegetation and heat - in June. Two weeks before the birth, the expectant mother retires, finds a comfortable and secluded place away from predators. One cub is born more often, and very rarely two.

Kids adapt to life conditions very quickly. It will take only a few days, and they will be able to overcome the small rocky surface. They get only one month of breast milk from their mother, and then switch to adult feed.If at birth the lamb weighs no more than 5 kg, then by the arrival of frost already about 25 kg. Lambs already at birth are completely “equipped”: they have gray-colored hair, a dark strap is observed along the ridge, and a bright spot in the form of an asterisk appears on the forehead.

In the early days, the little-horny kids already know that in moments of danger you need to lie low, and after a few days you always remember that you cannot keep up with your mother, and follow her on your heels. And she will always protect them.

Sexual maturity of females comes in two years, and in a year they can reproduce offspring only once.

Video: bighorn sheep (Ovis nivicola)