bighorn photos

[Okanagan]

Few pics of bighorn rams, tame as park animals but outside of any park.  No open season on sheep in this area however and it is not far from a town.  Two pics of a ram about 3/4 curl or a little more.






Here's a ram asleep beside a full curl one with his head up.  Interesting to me how the sleeping ram laid his heavy horn right down on the ground.  I think he's pretty old and it looks to me like he's full curl even with considerable brooming on the side I can see.  My wife didn't want me to wake him up!  I know the one with his head up is full curl because even though it is hard to see in the photo, the tip of his horn on the off side sticks up considerably past the bridge of his nose, and if he turns his head slightly to put the near side horn in perfect measuring profile, the tip is going to extend toward his nose a bit further though I don't think he quite makes in on the near side due to brooming off the tip.

I' got some pics of a heavier horned old dude with chips out of the top of his horns from fights, but they aren't very good photos because he wouldn't pose for me in the few minutes I was willing to wait.

[possumal]

Great pictures!  They are truly beautiful animals. Thanks for sharing.

[iahntr]

Great pics ! 

On a lighter note, the first thing that came to mind when I saw that first pic was this,

sorry, I liked that commercial. 

[Okanagan]

Great pics ! 

On a lighter note, the first thing that came to mind when I saw that first pic was this,

sorry, I liked that commercial. 

Oh, man, good thing I wasn't drinking coffee or I'd have spit all over my keyboard.  That's hilarious! Thanks.

[FinsnFur]

I was thinking the same thing.
Great job on capturing those pics, nice.

Man, I'd hate like heck to get on the bad side of one of them.

[vvarmitr]

Wow, what great pix. How close were you able to get to them? 

[Okanagan]

Wow, what great pix. How close were you able to get to them? 

They would let me inside of 30 feet, closer to 20 once or twice.  Don't think I've ever been around any that would let me get that close.   The camera has a 6 power optical lens, and goes to 10x digitally I think.  The ram that is lying down is at max zoom and was at least 60-75 yards away, maybe closer to 100.

[Hawks Feather]

Neat pictures of the rams.  I can't imagine the sounds made when they go head to head.

Jerry

[Bopeye]

That's just too Kewl. 

Are they good eating? 

[Okanagan]

Are they good eating? 

They are delicious.  The mountain men like Jim Bridger rated cougar meat the best of all, and I believe that sheep was second on their list.  I think they are excellent, better than elk, and I prefer elk over moose (opposite to many people).