2018-07-21 Sat

Canada Post released a new postage stamp in its Wildlife stamp series. The high-denomination series was introduced in 1997 and has depicted several beauties from the animal world so far. The latest $4 stamp would depict a Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep and would be issued on 10th October in a pane of four.

David Craib designed the stamp using a photo by Cole Craib. An illustration was created by Rodrigo “Jorge” Peral Jr. while the stamp was engraved by Jorge Peral. A combination of two processes namely lithography and intaglio were applied to print the stamps by Canadian Bank Note using five offset colours and four intaglio ink colours.

Three subspecies of bighorn sheep are found in the northernmost parts of the USA and the Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep is one of them. Apart from that, it is the only species that is found in Canada.

One of the subspecies named O. c. sierrae is endangered. They entered North America by crossing the Bering land bridge from Siberia. At one point in time, their population was in millions and they were also a part of Native American mythology. Due to diseases introduced through European livestock and overhunting, their population diminished to a great extent by 1900.

Image Courtesy: Canadian Post