Most populations undergo seasonal movements, generally using larger upland areas in the summer and concentrating in sheltered valleys during the winter. Home ranges are quite large, averaging nearly 17 square km. Bighorn sheep are gregarious, sometimes gathering in herds of over 100 individuals, although small groups of 8-10 are more common. Mature males usually stay apart from females and young for most of the year in separate bachelor flocks. Young sheep of both sexes learn migratory paths and suitable habitats from adults in the group.
Bighorn sheep are less vociferous than domestic sheep.
The availability of escape territory in the form of rocky cliffs is important to bighorn sheep survival. If a sheep can reach a rocky outcrop or cliff, it is usually safe from the attack of wolves, coyotes, bears, bobcats and lynx. Bighorn sheep also require drier slopes where the annual snowfall is less than about sixty inches a year, since they cannot paw through deep snow to feed. The Indians also used the horns to fashion large ceremonial spoons and handles for utensils. The subspecies Ovis canadensis auduboni of the Black Hills and adjacent areas has already become extinct.