Montana holds one of the deepest bighorn sheep records in this atlas, 1,592 records running from the cliffs of Glacier National Park down through the Absaroka-Beartooth country to Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. Glacier National Park alone accounts for 976 of them, and Glacier and Flathead counties together carry more than half the state total.
Built for cliff country
A bighorn’s whole build is an answer to steep rock. Cloven hooves with hard outer rims and soft, gripping centers let it cross ledges that stop most predators, and rugged escape terrain close to open feeding slopes is the one habitat feature it will not do without. Montana’s map reflects that: records pile up wherever rocky ramparts rise above grass, from Glacier’s carved peaks to the canyon walls of the Bighorn and the high ridges of Custer-Gallatin National Forest.
Summer highs and the autumn rut
Counts surge from June through August, cresting in July, when ewes and spring lambs gather on high summer range and the trails into cliff country are free of snow. The rut comes in November, when rams crash horns in contests that echo across open slopes, and herds drift down to windswept winter ranges where the wind keeps snow shallow enough to paw through.
Status in Montana
NatureServe ranks the bighorn sheep S4, Apparently Secure, in Montana, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
