As Christmas draws closer, children listen excitedly for Santa’s reindeer on their roofs. A bighorn sheep, however, was not on their wish lists.
According to a spokesperson with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, a homeowner discovered a bighorn ram on his roof in unincorporated Boulder County on Dec. 5, the Fort Collins Coloradan reported.
Wildlife officials had hoped that the ram would come down from the two-story residence, but he stayed put for most of the day, CPW spokesperson Kara Van Hoose told the newspaper.
“We really aren’t sure how he got up on the roof,’’ Van Hoose told the Coloradan. “They can jump, but I’m not sure if the house backed up to a hill or something like that.”
“This is not the type of clatter you want to hear on your roof during December,” CPW posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The ram finally made his way off the roof on Dec. 6, but then was stranded on the home’s raised wooden deck, which penned in the animal with its 4-foot railing, the Coloradan reported.
Wildlife officers were hoping that the ram would be able to get down on his own, but realized after more than a day that the animal “needed a little nudge,” according to KDVR-TV.
A wildlife officer cut and removed a section of the railing, allowing the ram to scamper away to the surrounding foothills after its 36-hour adventure, the Coloradan reported.
“He was unfamiliar with his surroundings and couldn’t figure out how to get out of where he was,” Van Hoose told the newspaper. “It wasn’t until he had a clear of line sight to the ground that he got down.’’
Or, perhaps the ram, which is Colorado’s state animal, was enjoying the view.
“He did seem enamored with his reflection in the window, like a bird does,” Van Hoose told the Coloradan. “We do get some unique wildlife calls, but we think this one was pretty unique.”