ROCKY MOUNTAIN BIGHORNS

by Kay McDearmon ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 31, 1980

A short but not skimpy introduction to this sure-footed animal who can scamper up steep cliffs and jump off high ones, ""landing perfectly."" ""One would expect such an agile animal to be slender,"" but a full-grown male might weigh 300 pounds or more. Briskly and readably, McDearmon reports on the bighorns' coats, which keep them comfortable at -40° and are shed in summer, on their difficulties finding food in winter, on the play of young lambs and, of course, on the perpetual but rarely harmful fighting between rams. (""They fight to prove which one is superior."") Though early explorers reported the bighorn ""as plentiful on the mountains as buffalo were on the plains,"" they are now threatened, says McDearmon, by hunting (legal and illegal) and by the invasion of their range by man and his livestock.

Pub Date: March 31, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dodd, Mead

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1980

Categories: NONFICTION