Bighorn sheep can be amazing animals to watch and a rancher near Lovell has seen something unique on a couple of rams.
One horn has been growing irregularly, blocking the animals’ vision and potentially growing around the face.
But an animal expert says none of that affects the rams’ ability to survive in the wild.
Watch bighorn sheep with unique horn here:
Bighorn sheep growing unique horns near Lovell, Wyoming
“There’s two of these sheep that I don’t know if it’s a genetic mutation or an injury,” said Justin Lucht, a rancher. “And that one side seems to grow faster and curls into and towards their nose and almost covers their eye.”
Lucht and his family own and raise cattle near Lovell, and he has seen the big horn sheep on the Moss Ranch portion of the E.O. Bischoff Ranch.
“The places that they go that you wouldn’t imagine anything being able to run off of steep cliffs and rocks and they can go anywhere,” Lucht said.
Lucht says it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to get a ram tag, something confirmed by the Wyoming Game & Fish Department.
And last year a hunter harvested one of the rams with a unique horn.
“He saw that ram and thought that was a pretty cool trophy,” Lucht said about the man who hunted on the family’s land. “And I think I’d agree. I would have wanted him too. The unique structure of his horns kind of makes him makes him a prize.”
Lucht says he has seen sheep coming down for water.
But for the most part to see them you’d have to go up a steep narrow road up to the top.
And on the other side, the sheep sometimes hang out with the family’s cattle in a canyon.
“The rams like to summer up a little bit higher,” Lucht said. “Then in the Fall, about this time, they start coming down and kind of congregating down there about to breed.”
Lucht says he has seen just two, and the horns on the right side of the sheep look the same.
“That to me leads to the idea that it could be a genetic mutation and that could cause this,” saild Jeff Ewelt, chief zoological officer at Omaha’s Henry Doorley Zoo and Aquarium and the former ZooMontana executive director.
He says an injury or infection could cause abnormal growth, but it’s more likely a mutation.
“When there’s not a lot of animals in that particular group, inbreeding can happen,” Ewelt said. “And then we all know that inbreeding, with genetic mutation, that can lead to things such as the horn anomaly that you’re seeing there.”
Lucht says the rams have looked as strong as any in the herd.
“His horn is big and strong and I’d I’d imagine he could fight just as well as anything else,” Lucht said.
Ewelt agrees and says the ram can handle battles with other rams and be ready for predators.
“Even if it was growing into his eyes as awful as that sounds, he will adapt to that,” Ewelt said. “They’re spectacular animals.”
“They’re amazing,” Lucht said.”Yeah, they’re cool.”
