Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Artiodactyla > Bovidae > Ovis > Ovis canadensis

Ovis canadensis (bighorn sheep)

Synonyms: Ovis canadensis catclawensis; Ovis catclawensis; Ovis cervina; Ovis montana (pro parte); Ovis pygarus
Language: Spanish

Wikipedia Abstract

The bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) is a species of sheep native to North America named for its large horns. These horns can weigh up to 30 lb (14 kg), while the sheep themselves weigh up to 300 lb (140 kg). Recent genetic testing indicates three distinct subspecies of Ovis canadensis, one of which is endangered: O. c. sierrae. Sheep originally crossed to North America over the Bering land bridge from Siberia: the population in North America peaked in the millions, and the bighorn sheep entered into the mythology of Native Americans. By 1900, the population had crashed to several thousand, due to diseases introduced through European livestock and overhunting.
View Wikipedia Record: Ovis canadensis

Infraspecies

Ovis canadensis auduboni
Ovis canadensis californiana
Ovis canadensis canadensis
Ovis canadensis cremnobates
Ovis canadensis mexicana
Ovis canadensis nelsoni
Ovis canadensis sierrae
Ovis canadensis weemsi

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
2
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
19
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 6.15
EDGE Score: 1.97
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  154.931 lbs (70.275 kg)
Birth Weight [1]  9.70 lbs (4.40 kg)
Male Weight [3]  262.351 lbs (119.00 kg)
Diet [2]  Herbivore
Diet - Plants [2]  100 %
Forages - Ground [2]  100 %
Female Maturity [1]  1 year 11 months
Male Maturity [1]  2 years
Gestation [1]  6 months
Litter Size [1]  1
Litters / Year [1]  1
Maximum Longevity [1]  21 years
Snout to Vent Length [3]  5.51 feet (168 cm)
Weaning [1]  5 months 2 days

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands Mexico, United States No

Emblem of

Alberta
Colorado
Nevada

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Ursus arctos (Grizzly Bear)[5]

Consumers

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 2Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 3Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 4Bighorn Sheep Diet Selection and Forage Quality in Central Idaho, Guy D. Wagner and James M. Peek, Northwest Science, Vol. 80, No.4, 2006, pp. 246-258
♦ 5Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 6Nunn, C. L., and S. Altizer. 2005. The Global Mammal Parasite Database: An Online Resource for Infectious Disease Records in Wild Primates. Evolutionary Anthroplogy 14:1-2.
♦ 7Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0