Introduction

"King of the Mountain", a term permissible to the Bighorns of North America. These beasts, perfectly adapted to their environment, survive the hardships others simply cannot. They are a proud animal, willing to prove their dominance at all costs. The look and stature of male bighorns makes it seem as if they were "chiseled from high country rocks for the sole purpose of fighting in mountain arenas" (Stone, 1991).

A male bighorn, known as a ram, is much larger than a female, known as an ewe. As seen in the photograph, male bighorns outweigh the females in both body mass and horn size. The size of a bighorn varies by the subspecies, but usually weighs between 125-300 pounds for rams and between 75-200 pounds for ewes. The signifying attribute of a bighorn is its horns, protruding from the skull and curling outward around the ears. Although they do not provide protection from predators, they do determine his status amongst the herd. When rams fight one another, they do not fight for territory and they do not fight for sport, but instead for dominance in the herd and for females.