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Ovis canadensis

(American Bighorn)

Overview

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Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in English:

American Bighorn, Bighorn, bighorn sheep, Mountain Sheep

Common Names in French:

Mouflon D'Am?rique, Mouflon d'amérique, Mouflon du canada, Mouflon Pachyc?re, Mouflon pachycère

Common Names in Spanish:

Borrego Cimarr?n, Borrego Cimarr, Borrego cimarrón, Borrego cimarrón, Carnero Del Canad?, Carnero del canadá, Carnero salvaje

Description

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Physical Description

Size/Age/Growth

Body Length: 150-195 cm / 5-6.5 ft . Shoulder Height: 80-100 cm / 2.7-3.3 ft. Tail Length: 10-15 cm / 4-6 in. Weight: 45-135 kg / 99-297 lb .

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 3,180 meters (0 to 10,433 feet).[1]

Ecology: These animals are sexually segregated outside the rut . Group sizes usually range from 5 to 50 for males and from 5 to 100 for nursery groups of females, lambs and young males.

They mostly eat grass , but they also consume forbs and browse diet varies widely over the large geographical range of the species. Females gestate for 175 days, and give birth to a single offspring per pregnancy. Females can first conceive at 18 months of age and males are rarely successful at obtaining paternities before about 3 years of age. Very few females live more than 15 years and very few males survive past 12 years.[2].

List of Habitats :

Taxonomy

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Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 22-Apr-2004

The validity of the subspecies Ovis canadensis californiana has recently been questioned (Wehausen and Ramey 2000).[2].

Similar Species

Members of the genus Ovis

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 44 species and subspecies in this genus:

O. ammon (Altai Argali) · O. ammon ammon (Altai Argali) · O. ammon collium (Kazakhstan Argali) · O. ammon darwini (Gobi Argali) · O. ammon hodgsonii (Tibetan Argali) · O. ammon jubata (Northern Chinese Argali) · O. ammon karelini (Tien Shan Argali) · O. ammon musimon (Mouflon) · O. ammon nigrimontana (Kara Tau Argali) · O. ammon polii (Marco Polo Argali) · O. ammon severtzovi (Kyzylkum Sheep) · O. aries (Asiatic Mouflon) · O. aries ophion (Urial) · O. canadensis (American Bighorn) · O. canadensis auduboni (Audubon Bighorn) · O. canadensis californiana (California Bighorn Sheep) · O. canadensis canadensis (Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep) · O. canadensis cremnobates (Peninsular Bighorn Sheep) · O. canadensis mexicana (Desert Bighorn Sheep) · O. canadensis nelsoni (Desert Bighorn Sheep) · O. canadensis nelsonii (Bighorn Sheep) · O. canadensis weemsi (Weems' Bighorn Sheep) · O. dalli (Thinhorn Sheep) · O. dalli dalli (Dall's Sheep) · O. dalli kenaiensis (Kenai Dall Sheep) · O. dalli stonei (Stone Sheep) · O. musimon ophion (Urial) · O. nivicola (Siberian Bighorn Sheep) · O. nivicola alleni (Okhotsk Snow Sheep) · O. nivicola borealis (Putorean Snow Sheep) · O. nivicola lydekkeri (Yakut Snow Sheep) · O. nivicola nivicola (Kamchatka Snow Sheep) · O. orientalis (Urial) · O. orientalis arkal (Arkal) · O. orientalis bocharensis (Bukhara Urial) · O. orientalis cycloceros (Afghan Urial) · O. orientalis gmelinii (Armenian Mouflon) · O. orientalis isphahanica (Esfahan Mouflon) · O. orientalis laristanica (Laristan Mouflon) · O. orientalis musimon (European Mouflon) · O. orientalis ophion (Cyprian Wild Sheep) · O. orientalis punjabiensis (Punjab Urial) · O. orientalis vignei (Ladahk Urial) · O. vignei (Arkhar)

More Info

Further Reading

Notes

Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 18, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Mean = 1,481.390 meters (4,860.203 feet), Standard Deviation = 834.170 based on 201 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
  2. Festa-Bianchet, M. 2008. Ovis canadensis. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 03 February 2012. [back]
Last Revised: 2012-05-20