This was a really cute, fun scene to watch this past weekend. A young Bighorn Sheep ram puts his head down and tests one of his elders. Certainly the big guy could have flattened the juvenile if he wanted and instead simply put his head down as well and nudged ‘junior’ back a bit.
Mating season for Bighorn is gearing up and I had hoped to get the opportunity to see and photograph some of the big guys clashing. Unfortunately that wasn’t to be as this was the only big ram in the area at the time. I will have to give it a shot again, perhaps this weekend.
The Bighorn Sheep is the Centennial State’s official animal and to me that is quite fitting. Just like the terrain and many of its people, these animals are very rugged, strong and tough. The animal is found in many places in the state’s high country. Diseases from European livestock and overhunting had caused the animal’s population to drop precipitously by the early 1900s. Thankfully conservation efforts have been successful in helping the sheep rebound since then.
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