Sheep and Goats

Domestic sheep, Ovis aries, are 'usbai, domestic goats, Capra hircus, dube.

There are two wild species in the territory. One is the Mountain goat, Oreamnos americanus. The other is the Stone sheep, Ovis dalli stonei, which is often called the Dall Sheep, the other variant of the same species, or the Bighorn Sheep, Ovis canadensis, which is a different species not found this far north. The two are similar in many ways and often confused. Mountain goats have creamy-white, yellowish coats with long winter hair and a distinct beard on the chin and have short, sharp, jet-black horns that curve back only a little bit. Stone sheep are pure white and have no beard. Male Stone sheep have massive, brownish-yellow horns that curl around in a wide spiral.

The Mountain goat is 'usbai, the Stone sheep dube.

Note that the term for Stone sheep is also used for the domestic goat while the term for Mountain goat is also used for the domestic sheep. This is due to Dakelh people choosing terms for the foreign animals based on their appearance. Some people are confused as to which term applies to which wild animal because they assume that the term for the domestic goat must also be the term for the Mountain goat and that the term for the domestic sheep must also be the term for the Stone sheep.

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