Alberta bighorn killed in highway crash sets world record
Massive sheep found near Longview lives up to its name
For the second time in a row, an Alberta ram has set a world record for the size of its horns.
The bighorn sheep died in a highway crash near Longview, but had been sought out by hunters for years.
"It had a bullet hole in one of its horns," said Jack Graham, the Edmonton man who measured the ram.
Graham is with the Boone and Crockett Club, a U.S.-based conservation and hunting group that keeps tabs on the biggest game across North America.
A local rancher, who knew of the ram, found the animal on his property.
"It was recognized by the locals there, they had seen this ram many times. It's been photographed, it was well-known," said Graham.
Five of the top 10 ranked bighorns in the Boone and Crockett records are from Alberta.
"We have some of the best habitat and, of course, we have the National Parks as a good reserve right in beside the hunting areas for these rams," said Graham.
A preliminary measurement of 533 centimetres — or 210 inches — puts the horns almost two centimetres over the score of the current world record holder, which was a set belonging to a ram shot by a hunter in Alberta in 2000.