Rut season rituals with our bighorn sheep
A favorite fall nature adventure for me-spurned by the activity of their rut season-is seeking out the state animal, the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep. Every year I head out for walks into a few select canyons known for winter herd residency, with camera ready and ears peeled for the iconic and incredibly loud bang of a head-butt echoing off the granite walls.
Bighorn ancestors migrated across the Bering land bridge an estimated 100,000 years ago from the deserts of Eurasia. These early arrivals were not what we see now, as the initial species evolved into two genetically distinct animals, the North American Thinhorns and Bighorns. As Bighorns spread out in their vast new home of North America, they also evolved into three distinct sub-species, the Desert Bighorns, Sierra Nevada Bighorns (currently on the federal endangered list), and our very own Rocky Mountain Bighorns.
Opting to live in harsh and dangerous terrain as a means of survival from predation, they tend to spend much of their lives in the high country. Like the mountain goats, they prefer steep cliffs and rocky terrain and have evolved to be incredibly adept and agile in navigating this extreme landscape. Unlike the goats, having a short-haired coat requires the sheep to move to lower elevations as winter sets in, which provides for better chances of finding and spending time with them.
Along with greater chances of encounters, our Colorado sheep also enter their rut season in early to mid-November. Most of the year the rams keep to themselves in small bachelor herds, and the ewes and yearlings stay in larger groups tending to the lambs. The rut finds the herds rejoined for courtship rituals and mating, which in turn offers more subjects to photograph.
Like the other wild ungulate species here in the mountains (deer, elk and moose), part of the ritual involves dominance displays between the males as they vie for the acceptance of a female. Like the members of the deer family, this sometimes develops into a “battle” of sorts, resulting in the spectacular butting of heads. Head-butting (like sparring among the deer family) is performed to establish and maintain dominance in the bachelor herds, and can take place at any time of year, but generally increases during the rut due to the competition for the right to mate.
Often, the head-butt is a singular action done as a quick reprimand to a subordinate by an elder, or brief spat between “equals” over food or personal space. The ritual observed during the rut tends to be a bit more intricate. Two rams will come together side-by-side in opposition (nose to butts), sniffing one another, often with the more dominant kicking the opponent in the side or genitals. They will then walk apart as far as 15 feet or more, like two men in a pistol duel, and turn to face one another. Simultaneously, they rear up on their hind legs and walk towards each other as they drop back to the ground, meeting in a bone-jarring clash of their massive horns. After the hit, they stand staring at one another (or off into space) for a bit, seeming to need a moment to recover their wits, then part and repeat the ritual.
While I have only had the opportunity to observe this personally a couple times, and those in poor light or at too great a distance for decent photos, it is a stunning display to witness. In those experiences, the two rams were grazing a decent distance from one another, and from some unspoken trigger, stopped eating and squared off with their opponent. After the hit, both returned to the same spots and resumed grazing, only to repeat the clash minutes later. This ritual can last for a couple hits or stretch out for up to 45 minutes or more until one of the pair cedes his attempts to dominate.
General rut activity is quite similar to most male mammals’ behavior (including humans). It involves lots of over-eager pursuit of unwilling females, sniffing of butts, and comical-appearing flehmen responses and sticking-out of tongues to test the air for the pheromones of a female in estrus. The headbutt ritual, like the biggest clashes of elk fighting, is not extremely common.
The rams featured in the image were spending some time assessing the herd, seeming to exchange opinions on possible willing females. Unlike the elk, there is no “herd ram” keeping a harem of sorts. Adult males intermingle freely with one another, each giving his best shot at a chance to woo a partner. That said, it is ultimately always the female who chooses who she mates with.
If you have the opportunity to do so, I highly recommend heading to bighorn country for some amazing autumnal nature! Remember, the sheep prefer steep terrain, so canyons will be your best bet. Mid-afternoon often finds them low along waterways, drinking and grazing before returning to the treacherous canyon walls for safety before nightfall. We are incredibly blessed to be able to enjoy such “National Geographic-esque” wildlife encounters at all, and with any luck, you may even get to enjoy the unforgettable and iconic clashes of these stunning animals!
Originally published in The Mountain-Ear
