A Rocky Mountain bighorm ram’s horns can weight 30 pounds, which is more than all the bones in his body combined. Bighorn sheep are named for the large, curved horns borne by the males known as rams. Fighting for dominance or mating rights is the main purpose of these massive growths and are a symbol of status as well as a weapon used in battle. They hurl themselves at each other in charges of some 20 miles per hour. This confrontation is repeated, sometimes for many hours until one ram submits and walk away! The animals thick bony horn cores, enlarged frontal sinuses usually prevents injury and protect the brain by absorbing the impact of the head banging.
Baby head bangers – they start young!
These two boys (below) are a regular at Lake Minnewanka, I took this photo in July and they were in summer training for head butting, not to hard, just perfecting the technique! The smaller guy was actually challenging the big guy, but I think he is the old boy’s son and was just doing some teaching.
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