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Bighorn battles

In the mountains of Yellowstone, where the elk’s bugle signalled the beginning of autumn just two months ago, all seems deserted, but the final act of the season is about to take place. From out of apparently nowhere come the bighorn sheep. The toughest of all Yellowstone’s animals, they can stay here all winter on slopes and crags that the biting wind keeps clear of snow. Now they are coming together to rut. Like elk, the males battle for females but where elk do their best to avoid fights, the bighorns relish them. A quick test of horn size, and of other important bits of anatomy, and the males get straight to the point of sorting out who is toughest, crashing together and locking horns. The sounds of their battles echo across the Yellowstone wilderness and mark the end of autumn.

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