Bighorner

Bighorners are creatures found in the Mojave Wasteland, New California, The Courier: "There must be something good the rangers have done that you're proud of."

Hanlon: "[SUCCEEDED] It's kind of a long one, but all right. About twenty, twenty-five years ago, a group of NCR settlers pushed way south into Baja." "I guess it doesn't seem so far now if you look at a map, but back then, they were out a ways." "They built this little shanty town around a well in the middle of nowhere. Called it {rat-ul-tayl}Rattletail." The Courier: [Continue] Hanlon: "Word got back to one of our stations that raiders had been attacking the place. I went out with six rangers." "We must have been on the trail for a week before we got to Rattletail. We lost one woman to Night Stalkers and another almost died of dehydration." "When we reach the place, it's six shacks set up around an old well." "There's over two dozen bodies lying in the dunes way outside of town and five men with {three-oh-eight}.308 rifles crouched behind sand bags." ''"And these bodies, these people out in the sand, they aren't raiders. Aren't even heavily armed." "They're just people who were trying to get to the only well in fifty miles. I didn't have to talk to the men to see that they did not care one bit." "They had planted an NCR flag over the well and they would not budge until every last one of them was laid out, dead and cold." "So I walked up and told them there was a group of raiders coming, one hundred strong. {laughing a bit}I made up some cockamamie name for them and everything." "The men looked at each other, looked at us, and asked me what we were going to do about it." "I told him we would take them back into NCR territory because we had already lost ten rangers on the way out. Ten rangers, five men with .308 rifles." "Well, that was enough for them. They packed up what they could and we took them back north. Last I heard, they settled somewhere in {ahn-zah}Anza-{boh-reh-goh}Borrego." "Raised Bighorners. Had some tough times, but it worked out okay for them. So there you go. That's my one bit of good."''

(Hanlon's dialogue) and Zion Canyon as of 2281. They are mutated bighorn sheep.

Biology
Bighorners are mutated bighorn sheep from the areas' high mountains of the American Southwest. Humans have since domesticated them for their horns, meat, milk, and hides, but wild herds can be found in mountainous regions, usually in close proximity to banana yucca fruit, which the bighorners love. This makes them rather instrumental in herb tracking. Several settlements, such as Goodsprings and Jacobstown, keep domesticated bighorners in order to survive.

Bighorners are herbivorous and are primarily found in wild herds of three to seven in the Mojave Wasteland, or in domesticated drifts of varying size in settlements such as Goodsprings, Jacobstown, Spring Mt. Ranch State Park, or around Cottonwood Cove. Some more wild bighorners can also be found northwest of Snyder Prospector Camp and as far as Zion Canyon. Bighorners are communal animals; if one member of the herd is distressed, the entire herd becomes aggressive.

They are generally "laid-back" beasts with surprisingly docile dispositions, in spite of being quite capable of being extremely dangerous when provoked. However, according to Easy Pete they cannot be used as pack animals, as "they just lie down until you take [the load] off". Strangely, ewes grow horns just like rams; this is most likely caused by mutations due to exposure to radiation.

Gameplay attributes
In combat situations, bighorners are rarely outright hostile unlike several other creatures. Unprovoked bighorners, though marked as hostiles on the compass, will not actively pursue the player, and, if left alone, are content to graze and mind their own business. They will not attack unless something comes within 4–5 feet of them or their young. If this barrier is trespassed, they will rear their heads up and bellow, at which point they will charge and ram into their foe.

Bighorners cannot take a huge amount of abuse (they are squarely on par with a radscorpion in terms of health), but their head-butting attacks are devastating, capable of sending enemies flying backwards or knocking them down. Bighorners can also run very fast, this makes them a very intimidating foe for lower level players.

Bighorner
A regular bighorner with all the attributes mentioned above. Bighorners are not hostile unless provoked and are commonly found near Jacobstown and Charleston Cave.

Bighorner bull
Bighorner bulls are usually found in herds around the Mojave Wasteland. The bulls are normally not hostile unless the player gets close or attacks.

A killed the bighorner bull can drop up to five bighorner meat, which can be turned into bighorner steak at a campfire. It is very easy to gain small amounts of experience if you find bighorners in groups.

Bighorner bulls can cause a lot of damage when attacking in packs as their charges will continue to knock the player over until they escape their range. They are best left alone when at a lower level and will fight to the death if you approach them.

Bighorner calf
Bighorner calves, like brahmin, roam settlements, guarded or unguarded. They are less common than bull and adult bighorners in the wild, and are often more tame. This creature is most likely the first encountered by the player in the wasteland.

Despite their size, killing an unguarded calf is easy. Bare fists or weak melee weapons are often enough to kill them within seconds. Despite the size of their cranium, their heads will often easily explode when shot. Be wary of penned-up calves; unlike the free roaming ones, these are often guarded by ranchers that become hostile if any harm comes to their livestock. They are also an easy source of bighorner meat to help stave off starvation in hardcore mode.

Young bighorner
Young bighorners are roughly a third of the size of their fully grown counterparts, with a lot less health. Attacking one of these will cause their nearby family members to turn hostile and attack the player. They are not hostile even if you go near them.

Malnourished bighorner
Malnourished bighorners have been deprived of food and are near death. You can find quite a few at the Matthews Animal Husbandry Farm. They are not hostile even if the player moves close to it, most likely due to the fact it has no energy to fend off attackers.

Malnourished bighorner calf
Malnourished bighorner calves are extremely rare, as are their brahmin counter-parts, the malnourished brahmin calf. A malnourished bighorner calf is guaranteed to be found at Matthews Animal Husbandry Farm. They can also can be found near Cottonwood Cove. They don't respawn if killed. They are not hostile even if you go near them.

Lost mountain bighorner calf (Honest Hearts)
The lost mountain bighorner calf is located north of the Dead Horses Camp in Zion Canyon up in the mountains. Just follow the paths up and around and eventually you'll get to a narrow canyon path and in the end is the lost bighorner calf. It is the object of the quest, Bighorners of the Eastern Virgin.

Mountain bighorner (Honest Hearts)
Mountain bighorners are a regional variant found in Zion Canyon.

Mountain bighorner mother (Honest Hearts)
The mountain bighorner mother is the mother of the lost mountain bighorner calf and has been upset since its disappearance.

Mountain bighorner calf (Honest Hearts)
The young of the regional variant of bighorner in Zion Canyon.

Bugs

 * Old World Blues changed the bighorner knockdown script to provide the effect of the sonic emitter - Gabriel's bark weapon, which subsequently broke the script for the bighorners themselves.
 * Lonesome Road includes a new bighorner script that fixes this problem.
 * Bighorners have a fairly glitchy mesh that often results in them stuttering in place and clipping into each other.

Appearances
Bighorners appear only in Fallout: New Vegas and the add-on, Honest Hearts.