Though it looks like a sheep, the bharal behaves like a goat. Males stand about 3 feet at the shoulder and are best identified by their slate blue body color, black flank stripes and dark chests. A bharal's cylindrical horns curve outward, though in older animals, the horns are directed backward.
Females lack stripes and have thin horns.
Bharal are an essentially Tibetan species found north of the main Himalayan range from Zanskar to Bhutan. They occur in herds of more than 80 individuals, though groups of a dozen or so are more typical. Found between 9,000 and 20,000 feet, they comprise an important item in the diet of snow leopards. In fact, snow leopards kill 11 to 24 percent of the average estimated number of blue sheep annually.