Dall’s Sheep - Sierra Club BC
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Dall’s Sheep

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Dall's Sheep

Ovis dalli dalli 

Appearance

Dall’s sheep have hooves, thick white wool often stained by the soil, large curled horns and they can weigh up to 100 kilograms for rams and 60 kilograms for ewes. They have great eyesight and an excellent sense of smell. 

Range & Habitat

They are found in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and the very northwest corner of B.C. Dall’s sheep like open rocky areas with cliffs and slopes where they can escape from predators. They usually try to find places with less snow in the wintertime. 

Reciprocal relationships

Dall’s Sheep are resilient, mostly non-migratory beings who withstand the throws of Yukon and Northwest winters. They are herbivores and primary consumers who eat grasses, willows, and fireweed in summer and woody plants in the winter. They need salt licks to get minerals.  

Dall’s sheep have very interesting social structures and life cycles. Moms give birth to one baby on a cliff or rocky ledge in spring or early summer. The lamb stays with its mother for almost six months. Female sheep raise their young together, and lambs grow up playing with each other. As they get older, male rams live in their own group and only begin to interact with females during mating season. Wolves are one of their biggest predators, and these sheep are most often a winter food.

status

COSEWIC: Not Reported 
CDC: Blue: There are only about 200 or 300 Dall’s sheep in B.C. due to hunting, mining and forestry disturbances. 

more information

If you belong to a First Nation with a story or piece of information not represented here and you would like to share more about this species, please email us at education@sierraclub.bc.ca.   

photo credit

Canva

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