This young ram is the darkest colored aoudad I've ever seen. Anyone see something like this before? I hope it's genetic...

Neat looking for sure!

Never have but that's pretty cool...

I have seen a lot of Aoudad but none like that. That is really unusual.

He is just dark from wallowing in the mud. We see a lot like that after rains or wet conditions. Big old Rams though tend to be darker in color.

I'm not sure its mud. I've seen him at other times on the trail cam. This was just the best picture of him.

Looks like melanism to me. If so, very cool trophy when he grows up.

Never knew there was Affirmative Action for Aoudad herds

The dark actually just looks like a color phase from a recessive gene

I would imagine hes an older one of the herd also.... his chaps are long and stained and his bone structure trumps the young one behind him.. look at the feet

He’s not old....still immature.


But his coloring is amazing.


Only thing I was thinking was he was rolling around in a burn pile

We have shot many like that over the years his hide is stained from wallowing. If you shoot him get him mounted his hide will be washed and come out to be the same color as the rest in the picture. Pretty normal site right there nothing wrong with him.

I wish this kind of picture would show up on [/i]my[i] trailcams. lol

I knew when I posted the picture that people would think it was mud or dirt. I have seen pictures of that and if you zoom in you can normally see a mud clot or two in the long hair (in my experience). I see none of that on this guy. Plus, the hair on his back, face and chaps seems to be a shade darker than the rest of his body. If he were rolling around in something, wouldn't he be more uniform in color?

Looks like mud/dirt to me, look at the eyes and behind the front legs. Behind the kegs where friction has rubbed it off. The chaps hold most of the mud and stay darker. To me, looks like mud between the horns as well. I am no expert though.

Beautiful coat

The one I shot with MM was at least that dark.
Got him back from taxidermist and he was normal colored.
It is a mixture of mud and pee. I guarantee he stinks to high heaven

Suppose it is Melanistic - This is a Melanistic Whitetail buck my buddy shot this year and has the genetic trait making it darker......very cool and pretty rare.

He's just wet/dirty. Seen plenty like this after a rain shower.

Very cool

It would be cool if he kept that color

not claiming melanistic, but we have seen some dark ones on our place as well. here is one we have gotten pics of this year.

Love those funky horns.

Awesome look. Would be a neat mount