Bighorn sheep

Gestation lasts 180 days, litters average 1.03 young with 1 litter per year, and sexual maturity comes at 2.0 years. Its lifespan is 20.6 years, with values up to 24 years reported, and the IUCN lists it as Least Concern, which is not a threatened category.

Weight

69.1 kg – 119 kgsrc for Weight

Length

Not recorded

Lifespan

20.6 yearssrc for Lifespan

Diet

Herbivoresrc for Diet

Longest recorded lifespan

24 years

Main food

Not recorded

Habitat

Not recorded

Gestation

175 days – 180 dayssrc for Gestation

Young per litter or clutch

1.03src for Young per litter or clutch

Age at maturity

23.2 months – 2.05 yearssrc for Age at maturity

Litters or clutches a year

1src for Litters or clutches a year

Active

Day and night (cathemeral)src for Active

Lifestyle

Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle

Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status

Countries on record

Not recorded

Not recorded

The bighorn sheep is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

1. LCLeast Concern
2. NTNear Threatened
3. VUVulnerable
4. ENEndangered
5. CRCritically Endangered
6. EWExtinct in the Wild
7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species. What the categories mean.

1. kingdomAnimalia
2. phylumChordata
3. classMammalia
4. orderArtiodactyla
5. familyBovidae
6. genusOvis
7. SpeciesOvis canadensis Shaw, 1804

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

NT, Near Threatened

Argali

Ovis ammon

Bovidae

VU, Vulnerable

Urial

Ovis vignei

Bovidae

LC, Least Concern

Dall sheep

Ovis dalli

Bovidae

LC, Least Concern

Snow sheep

Ovis nivicola

Bovidae

M

Mouflon

Ovis gmelini

BovidaeNo free photo yet

Ram

Ovis aries

Bovidae

CompareBighorn sheep vs ArgaliBighorn sheep vs UrialBighorn sheep vs Dall sheepBighorn sheep vs Snow sheep

• An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
  Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
• Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
  Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
• Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
  Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
• EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
  Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1
• Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
• Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

@misc{bighorn_sheep_2026,
  title = {Bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/bighorn-sheep},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}