These bighorn sheep are playing a dangerous game by staying so close to the edge of the cliff, and one finds out the real risks the hard way.
While most animals avoid the dangerous and unstable ground along the edge of cliffs, bighorn sheep just have no such complaints. The best place to spot them is on the mountainous slopes and rocky ravines that they love.
Sudden disease outbreaks, habitat disruption at the hands of humans, and predation limit their numbers, according to the National Park Service. Accidents like those captured in this sighting don’t help their population either.
Taking A Survey
The sheep have excellent climbing skills and can be seen clambering in the steep environments they favor. Standing high on the cliff gives them an excellent view of the surrounding environment and ensures they can spot any threats.
Their impressive climbing ability means that the difficult terrain offers them protection, camouflage, and an easy escape route if any wolves come prowling around.
While they are safe and looking out over the terrain, they appear almost regal for a sheep, with their large horns, which, according to the National Park Service, can be up to 12% of an adult ram’s body weight.
Living On The Edge
Living in such treacherous environments comes with its fair share of risk. These cliff edges aren’t always stable, and male rams can weigh over 300 pounds, putting them at risk of falling.
Life on the edge is a calculated risk for the sheep, which have to balance safety from dangerous predators with safety from unlucky disasters. Everything can change in an instant, with an unlucky sheep going over the edge with just the slightest slip.
Establishing Dominance Gone Wrong
The first indication of anything being wrong was when the very edge of the cliff began crumbling away. A female sheep appeared to be slipping as the soft ground gave beneath her, but the cause might have been something more nefarious.
As the ground gave way completely and the sheep began to fall, she revealed a ram behind her with its head lowered, and it looked like it had just been headbutting her.
There are very few reasons for bighorn sheep to charge at each other like this, with the primary motivation for ramming being establishing dominance and securing the right to mate with females.
That makes this an exceptionally strange sighting, as ramming a female off a cliff seems an ambitious way to secure mating rights. Even if the ram was attempting to establish itself as higher up the social order, it’s unclear how this achieves that goal.
The Only Way Is Up
Despite the sheer drop onto large and sharp rocks, the unfortunate sheep showed no sign of injury. She landed along the side of a road, but she was walking immediately and looking back up to the clifftop.
The only way from the bottom is back to the top, but it was going to be a long climb, assuming, of course, she wasn’t hiding an injury. Bighorn sheep are incredibly hardy animals, well used to surviving in such conditions, so it’s likely she was shocked but unhurt.
