Holy CTE, my head is pounding just from watching this…
Sheep are generally known as docile creatures, but that’s clearly not the case for the bighorn rams that roam the peaks and valleys of the western mountains.
For most of the year, they live pretty calm lives, looking for food and putting all of their focus on just surviving, but for a short period of time, they turn into headbutting monsters.
Bighorn rams are quite large, weighing in at over 300 pounds for a fully grown male, but it’s the horns that make them such interesting and frightening creatures. They use these horns as battering rams to compete with other males during the rut, which runs from July though December and these battles can be absolutely epic.
Two rams will square off with each other, get a running start and slam their heads together with a force 60 times what it takes to shatter a human skull. I’m talking an epic collision that send a gunshot like crack echoing through the canyons.
A wildlife videographer in Canada’s Rocky Mountains was able to capture perhaps the craziest battle between these creatures ever caught on camera as three, then eventually four, rams in their physical prime dug their heels in, put their heads down, and laid it all on the line for the opportunity to mate.
From some of the background noise it seems like this was happening near a road, but that made no difference to the rams as they took turns laying the lumber on each other, sometimes even teaming up on an unlucky one for a two-for-one special.
To all of their credit, they hung tough. Even when a 4th ram decided to get in the mix, they held their ground and buckled down for a fresh fight.
Unfortunately, the video ends with no clear winner; Maybe they all recognized it was a losing battle and wasn’t worth the energy to continue.
This video is just the highlights of what must have been an hour long, head banging battle, so I can hardly blame them to get out while they still had brain cells left.
Another reason to be thankful I’m a human and this isn’t how we try to impress girls.
I need an Aspirin…
