Bighorn sheep ewes with the West Spanish Peak, Huerfano County

The Dubois Museum preserves and interprets the natural and social history of the Upper Wind River Valley as the National Bighorn Sheep Interpretive Center focuses on public education about the biology and habitat of the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep with specific focus on the currently largest herd of Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep in the coterminous United States that winter in the Whisky Basin of Whisky Mountain adjacent to the Fitzpatrick Wilderness in the Shoshone National Forest.

The Center preserves and interprets the relationships of the Bighorn sheep.

Historically sheep were also grazed in large numbers, introducing diseases from which the native Bighorn Sheep populations are still slowly recovering.

Some areas of Anza-Borrego Park are habitat for the Peninsular bighorn sheep, often called Desert Bighorn Sheep.

Bighorn sheep at Palm Canyon in Anza-Borrego State Park

Bighorn sheep are named for the large, curved horns borne by the rams ( males ).

Bighorn sheep have preorbital glands on the anterior corner of each eye, inguinal glands in the groin and pedal glands on each foot.

Bighorn sheep generally inhabit alpine meadows, grassy mountain slopes and foothill country near rugged, rocky cliffs and bluffs.

Bighorn sheep are highly susceptible to certain diseases carried by domestic sheep such as scabies and pneumonia ; additional mortality occurs as a result of accidents involving rock fall or falling off cliffs ( a hazard of living in steep, rugged terrain ).

Bighorn sheep of all ages are threatened by bears, wolves and especially cougars, which are perhaps best equipped with the agility to predate in uneven, rocky habitats.

Bighorn sheep graze on grasses and browse shrubs, particularly in fall and winter, and seek minerals at natural salt licks.

Bighorn sheep live in large flocks, and do not typically follow a single leader ram, unlike the mouflon, the ancestor of the domestic sheep, which has a strict dominance hierarchy.

Bighorn sheep in Silver Canyon near the town of Bishop, California

Bighorn sheep were among the most-admired animals of the Apsaalooka, or Crow, people, and what is today called the Bighorn Mountain Range was central to the Apsaalooka tribal lands.

In the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area book, storyteller Old Coyote describes a legend related to the bighorn sheep.

Bighorn sheep are hunted for their meat and horns, which are used in ceremonies, as food, and as hunting trophies.

Bighorn sheep were once known by the scientific identification argali or argalia due to assumption that they were the same animal as the Asiatic Argali ( Ovis ammon ).

simple: Bighorn sheep

The Goshutes hunted lizards, snakes, small fish, birds, gophers, rabbits, rats, skunks, squirrels, and, when available, pronghorn, bear, coyote, deer, elk, and Bighorn sheep.

Fauna include two herds of Bighorn Sheep, mule deer, marmots and feral horses.

Bighorn sheep, pronghorn, elk, mule deer, and wild turkeys live in and around the hills.

Mule deer, Prong Horn Antelope, Elk, Moose, Bighorn Sheep, Mountain Goat, Black Bear, and Mountain Lion can be observed within miles of town.

The mountain dwelling Shoshone were known as " Sheep-eaters " or " Tukudika " as they referred to themselves, since a staple of their diet was the Bighorn Sheep.

Bighorn rely on their keen eyesight to detect potential predators such as mountain lions, coyotes, and bobcats, and they use their climbing ability to escape.

This desert environment hosts a variety of flora and fauna, including the endangered California Fan Palm, Washingtonia filifera, Bighorn sheep inhabit the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountain ranges, and the fringe-toed lizard, an indigenous desert reptile whose numbers are increasingly under the U. S. Endangered Species Act.

The wilderness contains parts of several mountain ranges, including the Salmon River Mountains, the Clearwater Mountains, and the Bighorn Crags.

Black Bears, mountain goats, Bighorn Sheep, elk, moose, wolverine, mountain lion, and lynx are also found here. Twin Lakes, Montana | Twin Lakes in the Beartooth Mountains

Bighorn sheep and mountain goats inhabit the rocky terrain and highest elevations.

Created as a US Forest Reserve in 1897, it is one of the oldest government-protected forest lands in the U. S. The forest is well east of the continental divide and extends from the Montana border for a distance of 80 miles ( 130 km ) along the spine of the Big Horn Mountains, an outlying mountain range separated from the rest of the Rocky Mountains by Bighorn Basin.

Their tribal area included the river valleys of the Judith River ( Buluhpa ' ashe —" Plum River "), Powder River, Tongue River, Big Horn River and Wind River as well as the Bighorn Mountains ( Iisiaxpúatachee Isawaxaawúua ), Pryor Mountains ( Baahpuuo Isawaxaawúua ), Wolf Mountains ( Cheetiish —" Wolf Teeth Mountains ") and Absaroka Range ( also called Absalaga Mountains ).

* Battle of the Little Bighorn, took place near the river in 1876

The river was named in 1805 by fur trader François Larocque for the Bighorn Sheep he saw along its banks as he explored the Yellowstone River.

At the border with Montana, the river turns northeast, and flows past the north end of the Bighorns, through the Crow Indian Reservation, where the Yellowtail Dam forms the reservoir Bighorn Lake.

The battle site, now included in the grounds of Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, is approximately five miles south of Crow Agency, on the eastern side of the river.

Big Metal returns to his people with the message that the Apsaalooka people will survive only so long as the river winding out of the mountains is known as the Bighorn River.

Meriwether Lewis named this central Montana river the Bighorn.

It flows northward, through a gap in the Owl Creek Mountains, where the name of the river becomes the Bighorn River.

Reno with three troops, or companies, was to attack the Indian village from the south, while Custer with five companies intended to cross the Little Bighorn river farther north and come into the village from the opposite side ; Custer ordered Captain Frederick Benteen with three companies to move below the Sioux camp to block the Indians from escaping to the South.

He participated in the Battle of the Little Bighorn River on June 25 – 26 June 1876, where, as his company approached the bluffs overlooking the river, Watson ’ s horse and that of another man, Peter Thompson, gave out.

A battalion made up of companies M, A and G and led by Major Marcus Reno had attacked the southwest corner of a large Indian village along the Little Bighorn river and had been routed with heavy casualties in its attack on the Sioux village, and the tattered remains of the battalion struggled to cross the river and climb the bluffs.

While the river and forest used the name " Bighorn " all in one word, the mountains associated with the forest are referred to as the " Big Horns ".