40 Fun Facts About Dall Sheep

Which Alaskan national park was created in 1917 chiefly to protect Dall sheep from overhunting?

Denali opened as Mount McKinley National Park, and its Dall sheep are still among the few in North America that go unhunted by people yet live beside a full cast of big predators.

William Healey Dall, namesake of the Dall sheep, also gave his name to which sea mammal?

Porpoise and sheep each honour a naturalist who was among the first scientists to explore interior Alaska, and Dall's is the largest member of its family.

Unlike the antlers of a moose, what is true of the horns on a Dall sheep ram?

They are never shed: a horn is slow-growing, permanent bone under a hard sheath, so a ram carries the same pair for life and simply adds to it each summer.

Dall sheep start growing horns at about two months old, but which of the animals carry them?

Both sexes carry horns, but a ewe's stay short, slender and only slightly curved, which is why a young ram looks just like a ewe until he is about three.

What do Dall sheep travel many miles each spring to eat at sites known as mineral licks?

Soil at these rocky outcrops is loaded with minerals that a diet of plants cannot supply, and several groups of sheep may meet and mingle at a single lick.

Dall sheep rams crash horns all year round, not just in the rut, so what are the clashes for?

To settle social rank, not to win a ewe: once the order is fixed, largely by horn size, rams can live side by side with few injuries.

Which hoofed Alaskan animal, fond of wetter country, is sometimes mistaken for the Dall sheep?

Mountain goat coats are just as pale, but the horns are slim, black and dagger-like, and none of Alaska's damp south-eastern panhandle holds a single Dall sheep.

Ancestors of the Dall sheep walked from Siberia to North America by which now-drowned route?

The Bering land bridge let wild sheep cross during the Pleistocene, and their nearest Asian kin, the snow sheep, still roam the mountains of north-east Siberia.

Stone sheep are slate grey-brown, but what colour is their northern cousin, the Dall sheep?

White or creamy all over, the Dall sheep is the northernmost wild sheep in North America, and its winter coat can grow more than two inches thick.

The tough outer sheath of a Dall sheep's horn is made of which protein, also found in fingernails?

Keratin wraps a living core, and on a mature Dall sheep ram the finished horns can account for almost a tenth of his body weight.

Counted like tree rings to age a Dall sheep, the yearly growth marks on its horns are called what?

Annuli form because horn growth stalls each winter, leaving a thin dark ring; on rams past eight, though, the tips wear away faster than the base adds new horn.

Seen from the side, the horns of a mature 'full curl' Dall sheep ram trace which shape?

A circle takes a ram seven or eight years to complete, and it is the usual yardstick for whether sport hunters may legally take him.

Which bird of prey is a known hunter of newborn Dall sheep lambs on Alaska's high ridges?

Golden eagle attacks help make a lamb's first weeks the riskiest of its life: most early deaths come in the first 30 to 45 days.

Besides the Dall sheep, which is the only other wild sheep species native to North America?

Bighorn sheep took the south, from the Canadian Rockies down to Mexico, while Dall sheep kept to Alaska and the far north-west of the continent.

Where does a Dall sheep ewe go to give birth, staying a few days until her lamb can travel?

Rugged cliffs keep predators at bay while the single lamb finds its feet; it can stand within about half an hour of being born.

The long, stiff guard hairs of a Dall sheep's winter coat share which heat-trapping feature?

They are hollow, so each one holds a core of still air, and they lie over an undercoat of fine wool.

Dall sheep are often spotted on crags above the Seward Highway, just south of which Alaskan city?

Anchorage drivers pass a pull-out called Windy Corner, at mile 106, where the sheep are often in plain view just up the hill.

Inupiat hunters have long turned to Dall sheep for meat and clothing when which animal is scarce?

Caribou herds shrank sharply in the 1940s, which made Dall sheep a key harvest, and the sheep still fill the gap when the herds change their winter routes.

Why do Dall sheep spend winter on exposed, blustery ridges instead of down in sheltered valleys?

Wind clears snow off food such as dry, frozen grass and sedge stems, yet in a hard winter an adult can still lose a sixth of its body weight.

A Dall sheep appears on the back of which US coin, issued in 2012 to honour an Alaskan park?

Quarter number 15 in the America the Beautiful series, the coin was released by the US Mint late in 2012 with the sheep on its reverse.

Like cattle, Dall sheep wring nutrients from rough alpine plants by which digestive habit?

Chewing the cud means bringing a meal back up from a four-chambered stomach for a second grind, which lets wild sheep live on poor, tough forage.

Before snowmobiles, how did Inupiat hunters travel to reach Dall sheep in the depths of winter?

By dog sled in winter and on foot in summer: even now the ground is so rough that the last stretch of any hunt has to be walked.

What are Dall sheep groups called in which one or two ewes mind the lambs while the rest feed?

Nurseries, or nursery groups, let most mothers graze in peace, and the lambs in them are lively from the start, playing among themselves.

A park to protect Dall sheep was first proposed to a club co-founded by which US president?

Theodore Roosevelt helped found the Boone and Crockett Club in 1887, and a fellow member pitched the Alaskan sheep sanctuary to the club years before any bill reached Congress.

Dall sheep rams and ewes live apart for most of the year, mixing for the rut in which months?

November and December bring the two groups together; a ram can father lambs at 18 months but seldom gets the chance until his horns reach full curl.

Stone sheep, darker cousins of the Dall sheep, live mainly in the north of which Canadian province?

British Columbia holds most of the world's Stone sheep, which often come down to lick minerals at the roadside along the Alaska Highway.

Sheep Mountain, a well-known place to watch Dall sheep, lies in which Canadian national park?

Kluane also holds Mount Logan, the highest peak in Canada, and mountains and glaciers cover more than four-fifths of the park.

Dall sheep viewing platforms ring the old mining town of Faro in which part of Canada?

Yukon mining once sustained Faro; as that industry declined, the town turned to wildlife tourism and built its lookouts.

What lets a Dall sheep ram walk away unhurt from a full-speed, head-on collision?

A double-layered skull and thick facial skin soak up the blow when two rams back off ten metres or so and charge; the crack can carry a kilometre.

Dall sheep could suffer mass die-offs from disease if which animals shared their ranges?

Farm livestock can carry infections that wild mountain sheep are extremely vulnerable to, so letting flocks graze beside wild herds risks an epidemic.

As Alaska warms, which plants are expected to climb higher and crowd out Dall sheep forage?

Woody shrubs gain from longer growing seasons and can shade out the low grasses and flowers, which may in turn cut ewe pregnancy rates and lamb survival.

Dall sheep at a mineral lick barely notice people, but which disturbance readily drives them off?

Low-flying aircraft and working machinery can clear a lick quickly, even though the sheep there are normally too absorbed to care about quiet watchers.

Dall sheep horns are typically which warm colour, sometimes so pale they look almost transparent?

Amber horns start to show when a lamb is about two months old, and a ram's then lengthen every summer for the rest of his life.

Parks spanning Alaska and Canada, prized as Dall sheep habitat, together hold which UNESCO status?

World Heritage Site status covers four adjoining parks, listed for their glaciers and icefields and as a stronghold of grizzly bears and Dall sheep.

Which Alaskan park, the largest in the US, has one of the densest Dall sheep populations?

Wrangell–St. Elias covers more ground than Switzerland, and its sheep are scattered through remote high country that few visitors ever reach.

In which far-northern Alaskan mountains do some communities still hunt Dall sheep for subsistence?

The Brooks Range hunts usually take place in winter because snowmobiles make it easier to reach the sheep and bring the meat home.

Which conservationist is called the father of the Alaskan park founded to protect Dall sheep?

Charles Sheldon had a special interest in wild sheep, and his name lives on in a peak inside the park and in a wildlife refuge in Nevada.

Which biologist's 1939–41 study of Dall sheep and their predators became a wildlife classic?

Adolph Murie published findings that helped end the predator-killing programmes then running in American national parks.

In lean winters, some Dall sheep eat large amounts of moss and which other slow-growing organism?

Lichen and moss bulk out a winter diet of dry, frozen grass and sedge stems; in summer, with food abundant, the sheep eat a far wider range of plants.

What do biologists call the steep, craggy ground Dall sheep keep close by while they feed?

Escape terrain matters so much that ewes with lambs wander farther from it to graze only when they are part of a larger group.