Mark Barnard, age 12, of Portland, Ore., for his question:
WHERE DO BIGHORN SHEEP LIVE?
Bighorn is the wild sheep of North America. There are three kinds of bighorn: the Rocky Mountain sheep, the Dall sheep and the Stone sheep.
Rocky Mountain bighorns live on open slopes of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada from southeastern British Columbia southward to Northern Mexico. The Dahl sheep live in much of Alaska and in the western part of Canada's Yukon Territory while the Stone sheep can be found from the south central part of the Yukon Territory to central British Columbia.
A male bighorn stands from three feet to about three feet six inches high at the shoulders. Old rams, as the males are called, weigh from 200 to 300 pounds. The ewes, as the females are called, are not as large.
Wild bighorns do not have wool as domestic sheep do. Instead they have a coat of hair similar to that of a deer.
Dramatic horns curve backward from bighorn's forehead, down and then forward. The largest horns on record were on a bighorn ram killed in British Columbia. These horns measured four feet three inches along the front curve, and spread 31 inches apart.
Bighorns feed on grasses and other small plants. They also eat the tender twigs of bushes.
Unfortunately, there aren't too many bighorn sheep around. Big game hunters prize their heads as trophies because of their great horns. Stock grazing and diseases have also cut down the numbers of these wild sheep in the United States and southwestern Canada. Mountain lions also prey on them.
Government agencies, however, are taking steps to preserve the bighorn.
Bighorn make their homes in the highest parts of the mountains where many humans find it difficult to go. They live in bands numbering as many as 60 animals. Lambs are born in the spring.
Rocky Mountain bighorns are dark grayish brown. In the hot mountains of the desert country far to the south, however, they have coats of pale buff. All of the Rocky Mountain sheep are creamy white on the lower parts of their bodies, and have patches of the same color on their rumps.
Dall sheep are white while the Stone bighorns vary from dark brown to black.
The Dall and the Stone sheep are more lightly built than the Rocky Mountain sheep and they have slender horns with graceful curves.
Ewes usually bear one lamb at at time but sometimes have twins. Lambs two or three weeks old can go wherever their mothers go. Bighorns jump and climb easily in dangerous places.
In addition to mountain lions, bighorns are sometimes chased by wolves, coyotes and even eagles. The bighorn are sure footed on rocks and can plunge at great speed down very steep slopes.