ROCKY MOUNTAIN BIGHORN RAM
SURVEYING THE VAST TERRITORY OF
THE MISSOURI RIVER BREAKS IN THE
RUSSELL WILDERNESS IN MONTANA'S
FORT PECK RESERVOIR IN WHICH I
HAD THE BOWHUNTING PERMIT FOR
ELK
A colleague and I put in for bowhunting permits for the Russell Wilderness (named for the wildlife artist and sculptor), which we could get to with an outfitter who would launch a boat into the Missouri River. We would go up the river, just as did Lewis and Clark, and see this vast wilderness of 2.4 million acres of hills made of "gumbo mud" eroded by the Missouri over time. When I had been out several days and had seen no one else, I realized that we two had THE only permits for the area to pursue elk with archery.
I had spotted many mule deer who would jump out of the canyons and run "pronking" away in the peculiar all-four-legs springing gait called "stotting"; a bad habit that mule deer once had (and presumably is a characteristic behavior that is being selected out of the gene pool by generations of hunters) is to stop and look back when they think they are out of easy range. One of these mule deer, who was no doubt surprised by the considerable range of my compound bow, will not be passing that trait, or any other genes, along to succeeding generations!
On the second day out in the "big sky" country's wilderness, I spotted what looked at first like elk cows grazing. With a considerable effort over a long time, we had stalked up top within reasonable range to look at them more closely with binoculars, and I said "Those are not elk! They are sheep!" Sure enough, there was a flock of ewes and young rams of the Rocky Mountain Bighorn. Now we were even more careful, since the eyesight of these sheep is amazing, better than that of a human aided by 10X binoculars. We were still sneaking along for a better look (there are, and would be, no bowhunt permits for sheep in this area of Montana, and when there would be a bidding for one of the ram permits, it would be more expensive than a new car, and likely go only to a Montana resident.) When I looked above and behind me, I stood up with a chuckle: "We surely are sneaking up very stealthily on these bighorns!"
High above us, sitting majestically on the knife edge of the ridge, were a pair of lordly bighorn rams, who had been watching us crawling up toward their harem, probably in curiosity mixed with pity on how poorly these would-be predators seemed able to get around in the mountains! We had been in their full view for over an hour as we had tried to keep under cover in approaching the ewes in the valley. I set aside my elk hunting for the rest of that day and determined to back up around the far side of the mountain, to come up on the downwind side and see how close we might be able to come to the rams at the peak.
It took most of the day, but it was worth it. When I crested the ridge at last with camera ready, I came upon the two rams at close range. They were seated with the spectacular view of the whole territory spread out around them, including the wide sweep of the "broad Missouri" that had carried me to this point, as it had Lewis and Clark before me, without a lot of interval change that these two rams might have noted. They were sleeping fitfully, keeping one eye out on the harem of ewes in the valley, and sweeping around to try to see what had become of the strange prowlers spotted earlier. They were dozing and chewing their cuds intermittently, always ready to spring into action if any sight sound or scent disturbed them. They were actually quite pestered, but not by anything as large as we were. They were being bugged by mosquitoes and flies that they had to twitch and kick and brush off, particularly from their mobile ears which would scan in multiple directions when their eyes closed.
When it was passed the time when I should be leaving to return to the river and the boat before sunset, I stood up and took this picture of the ram against the wide Missouri River backdrop. The ram had stood up when he spotted me, and watched me from within bow range as we both appraised each other. Then with one graceful spring he soared into space and after only a few bounces, he appeared in the valley amid the ewes that continued to feed there. I turned and started down my side of the mountain, and arrived at my destination at sunset, only two hours after he had returned to his flock. There is no dispute over who retains the title of lord of this Big Sky Realm!
