Badlands bighorn

Badlands bighorn
Specimen shot in 1903
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Bovidae
Subfamily: Caprinae
Genus: Ovis
Species: O. canadensis
Subspecies: O. c. auduboni
Trinomial name
Ovis canadensis auduboni
Merriam, 1901

Audubon's Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis auduboni), also known as the Badlands bighorn, is an extinct subspecies of bighorn sheep. While the latter of the two names refers to the Badlands, it inhabited a range that included Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota.[1] The species was hunted to extinction in the early 1900s.[2] Since then, Rocky Mountain bighorn have replaced the species in its former habitat.[3] Newer studies, however, do not support the existence of the Badlands bighorn as a distinct subspecies.[4]

References

  1. ^ Shackleton, David M. (1997). Wild sheep and goats and their relatives : status survey and conservation action plan for caprinae. IUCN. ISBN 9782831703534. 
  2. ^ Krist, John (2004). Voyage of rediscovery: exploring the New West in the footsteps of Lewis & Clark. New York: iUniverse, Inc.. ISBN 9780595335916. 
  3. ^ Wormell, J. Patrick Lewis (2003). Swan song : poems of extinction (1st ed. ed.). Mankato, MN.: Creative Editions. ISBN 9781568461755. 
  4. ^ http://fwp.mt.gov/mtoutdoors/HTML/articles/2004/audubonbighorn.htm