I have been in Radium Hot Springs (British Columbia) relaxing the last few nights, here is an email I sent to a friend.
Amazing animals.
Saw something rather cool tonight. A heard of bighorn sheep came to our hotel parking lot in Radium. Just outside the hotel is a barbecue area with a bunch of trees. Eventually a large group of big horns gathered and the biggest male (balls a swinging in the wind) with large very curved horns started ramming a tree. I could hear and see him repeatedly attackin the tree with his head/horns, thump! thump! THUMP!. At first I thought he was pissed or something, establishing his maleness, as males tend to do. But then I realized what he was doing was knocking down apples from the trees. He would ram his head against the trunk until the apples fell, sometimes 4 or 5 times in a row then everyone would feast.
The two largest and oldest males would bump heads sometime the crack would be quite loud, it was more aggressive than with the trees. Those bangs would be alpha male dominance type stuff. It is surprising how strong these creatures are, stocky and muscular. They could do some real damage if they charged a man.
Amazing animals.
Gerry
