{"id":11861,"date":"2014-10-14T15:01:15","date_gmt":"2014-10-14T22:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=11861"},"modified":"2014-10-14T17:45:59","modified_gmt":"2014-10-15T00:45:59","slug":"bighorn-wooing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=11861","title":{"rendered":"Bighorn wooing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For most of the year, adult bighorn rams and ewes live separately. This is obviously not conducive to species propagation, so in the fall, they come together and the wooing begins.<\/p>\n<p>Rams gather and jostle one another probably as a way to establish dominance.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11867\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bighorn141012us.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When jostling does not settle dominance, head butting does.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11865\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bighorn141012as.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Ewes show scant courtship towards rams. Their contribution seems primarily that of turning up. Here they are pouring down to the valley floor from the cliffs. Let the wooing begin.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11865\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bighorn141012rs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Six rams follow one ewe.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11862\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bighorn141012ts.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A ram must determine the state of a ewe&#8217;s oestrus and this\u00a0might involve licking her flanks and gently stroking her rump with his foreleg.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11865\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bighorn141012ps.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This ram obviously hopes the ewe is ready.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11863\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bighorn141012qs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Five rams tagging along behind one ewe have probably smelled her pheromones.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11865\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bighorn141012gs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A\u00a0ram in hot pursuit has already smelled pheromones and has now opened his mouth to expose\u00a0another organ which aids in determining if the ewe is in oestrus.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11864\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bighorn141012cs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A young ram tries unsuccessfully to mate.\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11865\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bighorn141012ss.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/> \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; For most of the year, adult bighorn rams and ewes live separately. This is obviously not conducive to species propagation, so in the fall, they come together and the wooing begins. Rams gather and jostle one another probably as &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=11861\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mammals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11861"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11880,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11861\/revisions\/11880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}