. The Canadian field-naturalist. 1967 Blood: The Ashnola Bighorn Sheep Herd 27 Bighorn Foods Range Composition. WINTER GRAZED STEM COUNTS DECEMBER TRAILING OF SHEEP JUNE GRAZED STEM COUNTS SPRING-FALL RUMEN SAMPLES SOUTH SLOPE RELICT SLOPE GRASS FORB BROWSE Figure 2. Comparison of bighorn foods, in terms of vegetation classes, with forage availability on climax and subclimax ranges. species than the overall winter picture from grazed stem counts. Sheep often pawed through several inches of snow to obtain pasture cage when abundant bunchgrass protruded. Sugden (1961) also found that pasture sag
. The Canadian field-naturalist. 1967 Blood: The Ashnola Bighorn Sheep Herd 27 Bighorn Foods Range Composition. WINTER GRAZED STEM COUNTS DECEMBER TRAILING OF SHEEP JUNE GRAZED STEM COUNTS SPRING-FALL RUMEN SAMPLES SOUTH SLOPE RELICT SLOPE GRASS FORB BROWSE Figure 2. Comparison of bighorn foods, in terms of vegetation classes, with forage availability on climax and subclimax ranges. species than the overall winter picture from grazed stem counts. Sheep often pawed through several inches of snow to obtain pasture cage when abundant bunchgrass protruded. Sugden (1961) also found that pasture sage and bluebunch wheatgrass were the preferred food species of California bighorns in the Chilcotin area of British Columbia. Pasture sage was used to a greater extent than the bunchgrass and he concluded that to be a reflection of the bighorns' preference. My data tend to confirm that conclusion. Ashnola bighorn sheep averaged 54% grass in their winter diet, but 72% over the fall-winter-spring period. Couey (1950) found that the stomachs of six bighorn sheep which died in late fall and winter contained an average of 63% grass. Murie (1944) found that grasses made up °o of the fall-winter- spring diet of Dall sheep (Ovis dalli dalli) in Alaska, somewhat higher than Ashnola figures. With the advent of new spring growth, the amount of grass in the sheep diet rises sharply while pasture sage decreases. The relative amount of bluebunch wheatgrass in the grass class also decreases. Downy brome, which matures very early was only eaten by sheep in May and early June. The rumen sample data, being a mixture of spring and early fall diets, fall between the winter and spring diets of Figure 2 with respect to relative amounts of grasses and browse Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Ottawa Field-
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