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The Dall Sheep (originally Dall's Sheep), Ovis dalli dalli, is wild sheep of the mountainous regions of northwest North America, ranging from white to nearly black and having curved yellowish horns. The species is named after William Healey Dall (1845-1927), an American naturalist.
The sheep inhabit the mountain ranges of Alaska and northern Canada. Dall sheep are found in relatively dry country and try to stay in a special combination of open alpine ridges, meadows, and steep slopes with extremely rugged ground in the immediate vicinity, in order to escape from predators that cannot travel quickly through such terrain.
Male Dall sheep have thick curling horns. The females have shorter, more slender, slightly curved horns. Males live in bands which seldom associate with female groups except during the mating season in late November and early December. Lambs are born in late May or early June.
During the summer when food is abundant, the sheep eat a wide variety of plants. During the winter diet is much more limited and consists primarily of dry, frozen grass and sedge stems available when snow is blown off, lichen and moss. Many Dall sheep populations visit mineral licks during the spring and often travel many miles to eat the soil around the licks.
Dall sheep are hunted by wolves, bears and humans.
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