Snow sheep

Ovis nivicola

Group: Big game
Size class: Large (70–300 kg)
Family: Bovidae

Range

Asia

Habitat

Mountain
Tundra

Range

Countries it is found in

1 countries

Russia

Range from:ASM Mammal Diversity Database — read 2026-08-05

Chapter 01

Overview

The snow sheep (Ovis nivicola), or Siberian bighorn sheep, is a wild sheep of the mountains of northeastern Siberia, living east of the Lena River as far as the Chukotka Peninsula and Kamchatka. One subspecies, the Putorana snow sheep (O. n. borealis), lives isolated from the rest on the Putorana Plateau. The species appeared about 600,000 years ago, and sheep that crossed the Bering Land Bridge into Alaska during the Pleistocene gave rise to the lineages of the Dall sheep and the bighorn sheep — its two closest living relatives. How many subspecies there are is disputed; the forms named include the Kolyma, Koryak, Okhotsk, Yakutian, Kamchatkan, Putorana and Chukotka snow sheep. The species is threatened by hunting, but the IUCN lists it as least concern; the Putorana subspecies, however, is classed as vulnerable.

Chapter 02

Identification

A compact wild sheep with a head-and-body length of 140–160 cm, a tail of about 10 cm, a shoulder height of 95–110 cm and a weight of 60–120 kg. The summer coat is greyish-brown; in winter it turns woolly and light brown. The front legs are dark brown, there is a paler patch on the rump, and the whitish muzzle stands out against the rest of the coat. The ears are small. Both sexes carry horns, though clearly smaller than those of the bighorn sheep. The ram's horns curl backwards and reach up to 90 cm; the ewe's are much smaller with only a slight curve.

Chapter 03

Behaviour

A good climber of mountain country, the snow sheep lives in flocks that are usually split by sex. The ram groups are hierarchical, and rank decides precedence in the breeding season; it is settled by horn size and by fights in which the rams run at each other with lowered heads and clash horns. It feeds mainly on grasses and lichens. After a gestation of about eight and a half months the ewe usually gives birth to a single lamb and suckles it for four to six months. Ewes mature at two years and rams at five; average lifespan is nine years.

Field data

Tracks

A photograph of real sign left by Snow sheep. Prints vary with gait, ground and how long they have been there — treat this as one example, not a template.

Track photo:Richard Dorrell CC BY-SA 2.0

Sources

Sources: Snow sheep — Wikipedia, Sibiriskt snöfår — Wikipedia (sv) — read 2026-10-29

Cross-reference