AnAge entry for Ovis canadensis
Classification (HAGRID: 01979)
- Taxonomy
-
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia (Taxon entry)
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Bovidae
Genus: Ovis
- Species
- Ovis canadensis
- Common name
- Bighorn sheep
Lifespan, ageing, and relevant traits
- Maximum longevity
- 20.6 years (captivity)
- Source
- ref. 671
- Sample size
- Medium
- Data quality
- Acceptable
- Observations
Young females have an over 90% survival in the wild, though an increased mortality with age has been reported for both males and females after about 8 years of age [0800]. It has been reported that these animals live up to 24 years in captivity [0573], which could be overestimated. Record longevity in captivity is 20.6 years [0671]. In one study ewes that experienced poor early growth had prolonged growth at the expense of reproductive fitness and weaned a smaller portion of lambs [1202].
Life history traits (averages)
- Female sexual maturity
- 707 days
- Male sexual maturity
- 749 days
- Gestation
- 180 days
- Weaning
- 152 days
- Litter size
- 1 (viviparous)
- Litters per year
- 1
- Inter-litter interval
- 365 days
- Weight at birth
- 4,400 g
- Weight at weaning
- 28,000 g
- Adult weight
- 70,275 g
- Postnatal growth rate
- 0.0031 days-1 (from Gompertz function)
- Maximum longevity residual
- 76%
Metabolism
- Typical body temperature
- 311ºK or 38.0ºC or 100.4ºF
- Basal metabolic rate
- 114.6740 W
- Body mass
- 67030.8 g
- Metabolic rate per body mass
- 0.001711 W/g
References
- [1202] Marcil-Ferland et al. (2013), Despite catch-up, prolonged growth has detrimental fitness consequences in a long-lived vertebrate (PubMed)
- [1135] Lemaitre et al. (2013), Comparing free-ranging and captive populations reveals intra-specific variation in aging rates in large herbivores (PubMed)
- [1143] Nussey et al. (2013), Senescence in natural populations of animals: widespread evidence and its implications for bio-gerontology (PubMed)
- [0671] Richard Weigl (2005), Longevity of Mammals in Captivity; from the Living Collections of the World
- [0036] Savage et al. (2004), The predominance of quarter-power scaling in biology
- [0420] White and Seymour (2003), Mammalian basal metabolic rate is proportional to body mass2/3 (PubMed)
- [0800] Loison et al. (1999), Age-specific survival in five populations of ungulates: evidence of senescence
- [0441] William Burt et al. (1998), A Field Guide to Mammals
- [0455] Virginia Hayssen et al. (1993), Asdell's Patterns of Mammalian Reproduction: A Compendium of Species-Specific Data
- [0573] David Macdonald (1985), The Encyclopedia of Mammals
- [0731] Zullinger et al. (1984), Fitting sigmoid equations to mammalian growth curves
External Resources
- Integrated Taxonomic Information System
- ITIS 180711
- Animal Diversity Web
- ADW account
- Encyclopaedia of Life
- Search EOL
- NCBI Taxonomy
- Taxonomy ID 37174
- Entrez
- Search all databases
- Ageing Literature
- Search Google Scholar or Search PubMed
- Images
- Google Image search
- Internet
- Search Google