Bighorn Sheep

Ever wonder about the difference between horns and antlers?

Beginning with the pioneering work of Adolph Murie (1944) in Mount McKinley (now Denali National Park) in 1939-1941, ecologists have long been interested in evaluating the factors influencing wolf predation dynamics. Murie, who had just recently studied coyote ecology in Yellowstone National Park (YNP), was hired to assess wolves’ relationship with Dall sheep. ..

Climb to the summit of Sepulcher Mountain while keeping an eye out for mountain goats, bighorn sheep, and moose along the way.

The grassland and sagebrush-steppe habitats in and near Yellowstone National Park (YNP) have been referred to as America’s Serengeti because they support abundant and diverse ungulates and their predators. Thousands of bison and elk, and hundreds of bighorn sheep, deer, and pronghorn migrate seasonally across the landscape where they interact with black bears, coyotes, grizzly bears, and wolves, thereby providing one of the premier places in the world...

Students first play a board game to learn about resources bighorn sheep need and the threats they face. Outside, students investigate why bighorn sheep are no longer seen along a local trail. Students collect data on other animals by examining tracks. They learn about plants bighorns eat and collect data on food availability. Students also play a bighorn trivia game. Back in the classroom, students put clues together to make a claim about the cause of a population decline.

Each park-specific page in the NPS Geodiversity Atlas provides basic information on the significant geologic features and processes occurring in the park. Links to products from Baseline Geologic and Soil Resources Inventories provide access to maps and reports.

Climate change has and will continue to have a negative impact on the population of desert bighorn sheep. For the remaining herds to survive, management may always be necessary. Protecting wild lands is key to the survival of these amazing animals.

If you travel the canyons of the American Southwest, you are sure to see figures carved or painted on rock faces. These include abstractions like spirals, dots and geometric patterns, or more recognizable forms like animals, humans, and handprints. They served to communicate among American Indian tribes throughout the centuries, and they continue to communicate today.

The Cant Ranch Historic District is located in the Sheep Rock Unit of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument established in 1974. The Cant Ranch Historic District, as established in the 1984 National Register nomination, is a 200-acre vernacular landscape that documents early 20th century ranching operations in the John Day River Valley.

In late April 1805 the Corps of Discovery set up camp near present-day Fort Union, near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers. This area was also home to animals never before seen by an American citizens - the bighorn (Rocky Mountain) sheep, and the “white bear.” On April 14 Clark saw his first "white bear," a creature so dreaded that American Indians would only hunt them in groups of eight to 10 men.