Читать книгу Hike the Parks: Rocky Mountain National Park - Brendan Leonard - Страница 16

The bighorn sheep, Colorado’s official state animal, is also the symbol of Rocky Mountain National Park. It’s estimated that more than six hundred bighorn sheep live in the park, eating grasses and other vegetation and using their grippy hooves and soles to avoid predators by traversing cliffs and ledges. Their horns are permanent and can weigh up to thirty pounds (13.6 kg), and they use them to head-butt each other at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour (64 kmph) in mating rituals. In late spring and early summer, bighorn sheep are known to travel down from the Mummy Range to Sheep Lakes in the middle of the day to get nutrients from the plants and soil.