When it comes to love, bighorn sheep rams don’t use dating apps—they charge headfirst at speeds of up to 40 mph and smash skulls. These heavyweight headbutts, packing up to 800 pounds of force (crazy), are all about showing who is boss during mating season. With horns that can weigh as much as a carry-on suitcase (30 pounds–unless you’re me and always go over the weight limit for any weight-restricted bags), and skulls built like motorcycle helmets, you would think they are built for battle—and they are. However, recent studies suggest that even these nature-made battering rams might not walk away as unscathed as we originally thought! It turns out, repeatedly slamming your head into another guy’s face might come with a few… ramifications. (HA!) Who would have thought?
An article in Newsweek published in May of 2022 stated that research has revealed that bighorn sheep and muskoxen, despite their adaptations for headbutting, may still experience brain injuries from these behaviors. A study published in Acta Neuropathologica examined the brains of these animals and found evidence of phosphorylated tau protein—a marker associated with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in humans—especially in the prefrontal cortex of muskoxen. This suggests that, similar to human athletes who suffer repeated head impacts, these animals might be susceptible to TBI. The findings challenge the notion that natural adaptations completely protect against such injuries.
Who knew? Well, it does make some sense…
Turn up your volume, and listen to the impact of these two heavy-hitters from footage that Tony Bynum Photography captured:
- Natural Habitat Adventures | Battling Animals: Real Head Traumas and Fake Fierceness
- Travel Tales of Life | Why Bighorn Sheep Ram Heads – Travel Tales of Life
- Wikipedia | Bighorn sheep – Wikipedia
- Sheep 101 | head butting by rams – Sheep 101
- ScienceDirect | Neurobiological tradeoffs of headbutting bovids – ScienceDirect.com
