Mark Milley, age 8, of Blairmore, Alberta, Canada, for his question:

Does the bighorn sheep lose his horns?

Most of the male deer lose their horns in the late fall    and start growing a new set in the spring. Actually their so called horns are really antlers, which are not quite the same as horns. Our handsome bighorn is a sheep and not a deer. He is the only wild sheep of North America and his horns are real. horns. Unlike the antlered deer, he does not shed them with the seasons. By the time he is fully grown, his sturdy body weighs about 320 pounds and his splendid horns form a spiral curve of 45 inches. The female has a smallish pair of almost straight horns    and she does not shed them either.

The magnificent bighorn also is called the Rocky Mountain sheep. This is because his home is high in the Western mountains. There the mighty old rams look down on the world from up among the ragged crags. Usually the females and the growing youngsters go lower down the slopes to feed on shrubs and mountain grasses. (Copyright Chronicle Publishing Co. 1974)