Ovis canadensis Shaw 1804

Ovis canadensis Shaw 1804, Nat. Misc., 51: text to pl. 610.

Type Locality: "the interior parts of Canada "; identified as Canada, Alberta, Mountains on Bow River, near Exshaw (Anderson, 1947:184).

Vernacular Names: Bighorn Sheep.

Subspecies::

Subspecies Ovis canadensis subsp. canadensis Shaw 1804

Subspecies Ovis canadensis subsp. californiana Douglas 1829

Subspecies Ovis canadensis subsp. cremnobates Elliot 1904

Subspecies Ovis canadensis subsp. mexicana Merriam 1901

Subspecies Ovis canadensis subsp. nelsoni Merriam 1897

Subspecies Ovis canadensis subsp. weemsi Goldman 1937

Distribution: S British Columbia and SW Alberta (Canada) to Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora and Baja California (Mexico).

Conservation: CITES – Appendix II (Mexican population); U.S. ESA – Endangered as O. c. californiana in Sierra Nevada, California; Endangered as O. canadensis in peninsular ranges of Calfornia; IUCN – Critically Endangered as O. c. weemsi; Endangered as O. c. cremnobates; Vulnerable as O. c. mexicana; Lower Risk (cd) as O. c. californiana and O. c. nelsoni; otherwise Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: For locality where Duncan McGillivray shot the type, see J. A. Allen (1912). Corbet (1978 c:218) included nivicola; but see also Korobitsyna et al. (1974) and Corbet and Hill (1991:135). Revised by Cowan (1940) and Wehausen and Ramey (2000). Reviewed by Shackleton (1985, Mammalian Species, 230).