Bighorn Sheep, Rocky Mountain National Park
Discover the story of near extinction and the encouraging recovery of America's bighorn sheep
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Welcome to Rocky Mountain National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park's 415 square miles (265,807 acres) encompasses a spectacular range of mountain environments. Altogether, 67 mammal species are known to be native to the area, but we are focusing on one species, the Big Horn Sheep.
Minute of Wonder: Climbing to See (2016) by National Park ServiceNational Park Service, Museum Management Program
Sheep not goat
Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep are the largest wild sheep in North America. As their name suggests, they have true horns that they retain throughout their life. They feed on grasses in the summer and browse shrubs in the fall and winter and seek minerals at natural salt licks, like Sheep Lakes, to add nutrients to their diet.
Declining bighorn population
In the mid-1880's and early 1900's, the bighorn population declined rapidly. Initially, market hunters shot bighorn by the hundreds to receive high payment for then prized horns and meat.
Invasive sheep
When ranchers moved into the mountain valleys, they altered important bighorn habitat and introduced domestic sheep. The domestic sheep carried scabies and pneumonia, which proved fatal to large numbers of bighorn sheep.
By John DominisLIFE Photo Collection
Population decline
Under the pressure of disease, hunting and habitat alteration, the bighorn population declined until the middle of the 20th century. Research in the 1950's indicated that about 150 bighorn remained in the area of the national park.
Bighorn Rams by Ann Schonlau, NPSNational Park Service, Museum Management Program
The surviving bighorn herds were in areas less accessible to human contact.
High country
The bighorn range was limited to isolated, high country regions of the Mummy and Never Summer mountain ranges, and along the Continental Divide. The migrating, low-country herds were gone.
Historic ranges
In an effort to stimulate population growth and promote diversity, wildlife managers reintroduced bighorn sheep to their historic ranges along Cow Creek and the North St. Vrain River in 1978 and 1980.
Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep by Walter Alois WeberNational Park Service, Museum Management Program
Growing herds
The herds of bighorn sheep along the eastern boundary of the park and the surviving native herds have continued to grow. Today, approximately 300-400 bighorn sheep live in the Rocky Mountain National Park area.
Cars on Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado (2016) by National Park ServiceNational Park Service, Museum Management Program
Learn more
To learn more about Rocky Mountain National Park, visit https://www.nps.gov/romo/index.htm.
Amber Dumler, Project Manager and Web Designer
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