It’s the ultimate backcountry hunt, where lightweight and weatherproof gear, GPS units, and immunity to vertigo are important considerations. In nearly every Western state, you must draw a special permit to hunt goats, and the handful of hunters who get the opportunity must be in top physical shape, able to reach the high country and stay in the field for days at a time. That’s where you can expect to find goats, on the knife-edges of ridges, on the shoulders of high peaks, and in the rims above bowls and cirques, anywhere food and escape routes converge. The wind blows ridges bare of precipitation, exposing the lichen and mosses that sustain them through months of winter. It’s that wind that enables goats to live in the high country, places where snow is measured in yards and meters. In that fragile, alpine environment, the mountain goat makes a living by grubbing for lichens and cold-stunted plants, escaping predators by climbing to places that no animal without its specialized splayed hooves could go, and by growing a luxuriant coat that insulates it from the wind and cold. With only a couple of exceptions, North America’s population of mountain goats lives on public land, most of it in designated wilderness areas, where access is free, even if it’s not always easy. The alpine goat is never lured to lower elevations by succulent alfalfa, has never tasted a kernel of corn, and can spend its lifetime without stepping across a road or jumping barbed wire.Įven its surroundings are liberating. If there is a freer animal than the mountain goat, I don’t know it. And they live in the continent’s most formidable and achingly beautiful real estate. Ounce for ounce, mountain goats are the toughest, most athletic, and least appreciated of North America’s game animals. They’re mountain goats, and hunting them requires the gear and determination of a mountaineer, the lungs of a Sherpa, and the balance of a gymnast. And they endure endless winters in the high, wind-strafed roof of the continent. They stick landings on tiny jags of slippery shale. They are alone for most of the year except for November which is the mating month. The nanny will protect her young for a while and eventually the kid will leave his mother. The female mountain goat, or nanny, becomes pregnant in November, the only month they are together, and gives birth to her kid six months, or half a year, later. She will often dominate the territory, and the male will leave her alone. The female uses her horns to defend her young. The billy had long slender horns that measure approximately 1 foot. Both male and female have short, strong, legs that have large black hooves on the end. Their thick undercoat, and long white overcoat, protects them from blustery wind, and harsh weather that often occurs in their mountainous habitat. at the shoulder (90-120 centimeters.) The mother mountain goat is called a nanny, and the male is called a billy, the baby is called a kid. The mountain goat wanders the mountains alone, and meets only to mate. They do this so predators cannot get them. Mountain goats are great at climbing, and will rest on rocky cliffs. They are also known as the Rocky Mountain goat. The mountain goat ( Oreamnos americanus) is a species of goats.
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