Dall Sheep Fact Sheet
By Yumeko Ziegler
Dall sheep are found in the mountain ranges of Alaska. They are sometimes mixed up with mountain goats as they share a white coat to blend into their snowy surroundings, but they can be easily recognized by their large curled horns that the male dall sheep (rams) have.
Dall sheep can be found in alpine areas in the subarctic mountain ranges of Alaska. Some viewing areas include the Dalton Highway, Atigun Pass, Galbraith Lake, and Slope Mountain. Their habitat includes steep and rugged slopes which they use to escape predators.
Although Dall sheep are not endangered, their population rates can fluctuate due to…
Harsh winter conditions
Predation
Low birth rates
DID YOU KNOW…
Like a tree or a mountain goat, their age can be found by counting the rings on their horns.
Adult rams use their massive horns to fight and establish dominance.
Humans do not usually affect Dall sheep populations too much from hunting, because the sheep live in such inhabitable areas that are very difficult to hunt in.
Check out this video about the lives of Dall sheep!
SCIENTIFIC AND COMMON NAMES
Ovis dalli dalli, - Dall Sheep, also referred to as thinhorn sheep or Dall’s sheep.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Dall sheep are sexually dimorphic, meaning males and females look different. Rams develop their signature curled horns once they become three years old. Before this point, they have horns similar to females (ewes) who have shorter, more slender, and less curled horns. Their horns grow gradually throughout the year, until late fall and winter when they stop growing. Because of this on-and-off growing pattern, there is a resulting pattern of rings that, like a tree, can show how old they are.
Their wool is off-white and grows to be over two inches thick in the winter to keep them warm. Rams weigh between 160 and 180 pounds (72.6-81.6 kg) and ewes are smaller, weighing between 100 and 110 pounds (45.4-49.9 kg). During the winter the adults may lose 16% of their body mass and young (lambs) can lose as much as 40%.
Check out this link for audio of how rams and ewes sound!
Photo courtesy of Ryan Holliday/Wikimedia
RANGE
Map courtesy of ADFG
Dall sheep can be found in western Canada and in the United States. In Alaska, they can be found in areas such as the Kenai Mountains, the Chugach Mountains, the northern Wrangell Mountains, on the north side of the Alaska Range east of the Nenana River, west of the Delta River, and south of the Tanana River.
LIFE HISTORY
Dall sheep have a well developed social system; ewes live with other ewes and their lambs who play with each other. Rams live in their own groups called “bands” of up to 15 members and don’t interact with ewes until mating season in late November and early December. Ewes get along well together and rarely fight, however rams fight in the summer to determine dominance.
Rams are able to sire lambs once they are 18 months old, however it is more common to have to wait until they reach social dominance and adult size at 5-7 years old. For ewes, at 3 years old they are mature enough to breed and have lambs. Mating season is in late November and early December, and then in late May and early June, an ewe will have one lamb per year after 175 days of gestation. Twins are possible, but they are rare.
Most mortality for lambs are within the first 30 to 45 days of their lives, so the ewes head to rugged cliffs to bear their lambs in solitude where they remain until the lamb is strong enough to travel. They are able to stand within the first 15-32 minutes after birth, and are able to travel with their mother within 24 hours. They start to eat vegetation within two weeks of age and are weaned from their mother’s milk after three to five months.
Dall sheep typically live for 12 years, but they can sometimes live to 16 and rarely 19, although this is uncommon.
Photo courtesy of Jon Nickles/USFWS
DIET
Like most Alaskan animals, the Dall sheep’s diet differs from season to season. Because they are herbivores, they only eat plants. In the summer, there are many plants and they have a wide variety, including grasses, sedges, forbes, lichens, mosses, etc. In the winter, there is less of this food and they feed on frozen grass, sedges, and lichens. Different bands of Dall sheep meet at mineral licks together to lick the salt and other minerals off of them. This includes the mingling of rams and ewes which doesn’t happen often outside of mating season.
CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
Mountain sheep were usually hunted by Indigenous peoples in the summers with snares, bows and arrows, and more recently, guns. The Peel River Kutchin, for instance, attached boulders to snares and used bow and arrows to stalk the animal from above.
Some peoples like the Peel River Kutchin cached the meat by hanging it in a tree, while other peoples like the Han would take some of the flesh for immediate consumption before chaching it. The Nahani and Loucheux would take their favorite pieces, like the tongue, and then bring it back to camp.
Other than food, the Puget Sound Indigenous peoples and the Tahltan would use their horns to make dishes, ladles, and knife handles by boiling the horns and then molding them.
DALL SHEEP COLORING SHEET
Coloring page courtesy of Lena London
We hope you learned something new about Dall sheep! Check out our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to learn more about Alaska’s wildlife, and subscribe to our free newsletter to get updates from the Alaska Wildlife Alliance! If you want to support wildlife conservation in Alaska, you can become a member for only $35 dollars a year!
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Information obtained from: Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Animal Diversity Web, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Traditional Animal Foods of Indigenous Peoples of Northern North America.
