WILDLIFE DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Ovis canadensis | Bighorn Sheep 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
The former range of the bighorn sheep extended from the Northern Rocky
Mountains of Canada south to the mainland of Mexico and Baja California
[22].  It is now found in relatively isolated pockets in the Coast and
Cascade ranges and the Sierra Nevada, and in the Rocky Mountains south
of the Peace River to Mexico [6].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
FRES20 Douglas-fir
FRES21 Ponderosa pine
FRES23 Fir-spruce
FRES26 Lodgepole pine
FRES29 Sagebrush
FRES30 Desert shrub
FRES32 Texas savanna
FRES33 Southwestern shrubsteppe
FRES34 Chaparral-mountain shrub
FRES35 Pinyon-juniper
FRES36 Mountain grasslands
FRES37 Mountain meadows
FRES38 Plains grasslands
FRES39 Prairie
FRES40 Desert grasslands
FRES44 Alpine


STATES : 


    
AZ
    
CA
	
CO
    
ID
    
MT
    
NM
    
NV
    
ND
    
OR
    
SD


    
TX
    
UT
    
WA
    
WY
  





    
AB
    
BC






    
MEXICO
    




BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
    1  Northern Pacific Border
    2  Cascade Mountains
    3  Southern Pacific Border
    4  Sierra Mountains
    5  Columbia Plateau
    6  Upper Basin and Range
    7  Lower Basin and Range
    8  Northern Rocky Mountains
    9  Middle Rocky Mountains
   10  Wyoming Basin
   11  Southern Rocky Mountains
   12  Colorado Plateau
   13  Rocky Mountain Piedmont
   16  Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K003  Silver fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K004  Fir - hemlock forest
   K005  Mixed conifer forest
   K010  Ponderosa shrub forest
   K011  Western pondersoa forest
   K012  Douglas-fir forest
   K015  Western spruce - fir forest
   K016  Eastern ponderosa forest
   K018  Pine - Douglas-fir forest
   K019  Arizona pine forest 
   K020  Spruce - fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K021  Southwestern spruce - fir forest
   K022  Great Basin pine forest
   K024  Juniper steppe woodland
   K023  Juniper - pinyon woodland
   K028  Mosaic of K002 and K026
   K029  California mixed evergreen forest
   K031  Oak - juniper woodlands
   K032  Transition between K031 and K037
   K035  Coastal sagebrush
   K037  Mountain-mahogany - oak scrub
   K038  Great Basin sagebrush
   K039  Blackbrush
   K040  Saltbush - greasewood
   K041  Creosotebush
   K042  Creosotebush - bursage
   K047  Fescue - oatgrass
   K050  Fescue - wheatgrass
   K051  Wheatgrass - bluegrass
   K053  Grama - galleta steppe
   K054  Grama - tobosa prairie
   K057  Galleta - three-awn shrubsteppe
   K058  Grama - tobosa shrubsteppe
   K059  Trans-Pecos shrub savanna
   K052  Alpine meadows and barren
   K063  Foothills prairie
   K064  Grama - needlegrass - wheatgrass
   K065  Grama - buffalograss
   K066  Wheatgrass - needlegrass
   K067  Wheatgrass - bluestem - needlegrass
   K068  Wheatgrass - grama - buffalograss
   K069  Bluestem - grama prairie
   K070  Sandsage - bluestem prairie
   K074  Bluestem prairie


SAF COVER TYPES : 
   204  Black spruce
   205  Mountain hemlock
   206  Engelmann spruce - subalpine fir
   208  Whitebark pine
   210  Interior Douglas-fir
   218  Lodgepole pine
   220  Rocky Mountain juniper
   230  Douglas-fir - western hemlock
   237  Interior ponderosa pine
   238  Western juniper
   239  Pinyon - juniper


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Bighorn sheep occupy a variety of plant communities ranging from alpine
meadows, woodlands, mixed-grass prairie, shrub-bunchgrass, and dry
pinyon-juniper (Pinus-Juniperus spp.) [2,7,14,25,27].  They avoid dense
forests [6].

Summer ranges of bighorn sheep in southeastern Oregon vary from
subalpine meadows or grasslands to sagebrush (Artemisia spp.)/grasslands
or shrublands.  Winter ranges are usually shrub/grasslands and
shrublands.  Communities dominated by trees or tall shrubs such as aspen
(Populus spp.), cottonwood (Populus spp.), fir (Abies spp.), pine,
juniper, mountain-mahogany (Cercocarpus spp.), squaw apple (Peraphyllum
ramosissimum), and cherry (Prunus spp.) may occur throughout both summer
and winter ranges [26].

On two bighorn sheep winter ranges in the upper Yellowstone River
Valley, vegetation types in which bighorns were observed included
bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata), needle-and-thread (Stipa
comata), and Idaho fescue (Festuca idahoensis) grasslands; sagebrush
(primarily A. tridentata) and black greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculatus)
shrublands; open Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) woodland; and the
vegetation mosaics associated with cliffs and draws [14].  Bighorn sheep
range in Glacier National Park includes bunchgrass communities dominated
by bluebunch wheatgrass, Idaho fescue, rough fescue (F. scrabrella), and
Saskatoon serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia); and seral vegetation of
subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) habitat types [24].

Other plant species common on bighorn sheep range include bitterbrush
(Purshia tridentata), mountain muhly (Muhlenbergia montana), russet
buffaloberry (Shepherdia canadensis), bearberry (Arctostaphylos
uva-ursi), blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis), rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus
spp.), bluegrass (Poa spp.), buffalograss (Buchloe dactyloides), western
wheatgrass (Pascopyron smithii), and sedges (Carex spp.)  [2,7,11,24,25].


REFERENCES : 
NO-ENTRY

Related categories for Wildlife Species: Ovis canadensis | Bighorn Sheep