Behavioural Study of Wild Dall’s Sheep

In this exercise you will be observing the behaviour of a unique group of wild animals, the Thinhorn or Dall’s sheep (Ovis dalli dalli)

Dall’s sheep are native to Yukon and the Northwest Territories where they forage on the shrubland of slopes and mountain sides. They spend the majority of the day grazing and as such display typical herd behaviours for wild animals under threat from predation from animals such as wolves and bears.

Before you start the tasks on this exercise, it would be useful to read this factsheet on Dall’s Sheep in the Yukon:

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In these tasks you will be learning to distinguish sheep by sex and age and watching videos shot from a similar distance as our students observe the animals to make observations on some key points of behaviour and herd structure.