Salty Dreams

The Mighty Mountain Goat Conjures Visions of Iconic Colorado. But These Billies And Nannies Aren’t Native To The State.

Story and photos by Reid Neureiter

For the GPHN

Think of making the arduous trek above timberline on one of Colorado’s fourteeners, only to be greeted by a nanny mountain goat, an indescribably cute snow-white baby kid at her side. It is a common sight at the top of Mount Evans and on other Colorado peaks.

Indeed, Coloradans frequently picture the mountain goat, with its needle-sharp horns and thick white coat, as a symbol of the state’s high mountain terrain.

But mountain goats are not native to Colorado. A small number were first introduced to the Mount Evans area by the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife in 1947 for hunting purposes. Today, thousands of mountain goats inhabit Colorado’s high mountain peaks, damaging the native flora and sometimes out-competing Colorado’s state animal, the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, for the limited resources available above timberline.

The mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus) is not a true goat, but belongs to the to the goat antelope tribe, Rupicaprini. Male mountain goats (called “billies”) can weigh up to 300 pounds, and the females (“nannies”) are about half that size. The animals are usually 3 feet tall and 4-5 feet long, with short tails. Both males and females have sharp horns that can grow up to 10 inches long.

Unlike true goats, mountain goats do not butt heads, but instead are known to stab each other with their horns. They have cloven hoofs that spread apart with soft inner pads that provide traction on steep and rocky terrain. In the wild, mountain goats usually live 12 to 15 years. They mostly stay in their high mountain range year around, seldom going below tree line. Their thick double wool coats protect them from freezing alpine temperatures and high winds. In the spring and early summer the outer wool layer sheds, and the animals take on a ragged appearance.

Kids are born in May or June after a gestation period of about six months and twins occur in about a quarter of all births.

According to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife, some 55-60 original animals were transplanted into Colorado from Montana, Idaho and British Columbia between 1947 and 1972. Those original animals grew to a statewide population estimated at almost 2,000 by 2005.

Although it is hard to conceive of the mountain goat as a damaging invasive species like the zebra mussel, which is wreaking havoc on the Great Lakes region, or the Burmese python, which has established itself in the Florida Everglades to the detriment of native wetland species, the thriving Colorado mountain goat population is a concern for National Park Service biologists in Rocky Mountain National Park.

As explained on the National Park’s website, individual mountain goats that make their way north from Mount Evans sometimes carry diseases that can infect native bighorn sheep and compete with the native bighorns for food and habitat. According to the Park Service, “Because mountain goats are a significant threat to the survival of native bighorn sheep, the park has taken active measures to remove mountain goats that enter the park. Park policy is to euthanize goats when feasible and safe to do so.”

Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park is not the only one with this problem. Although native to the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, mountain goats were introduced to Washington’s Olympic National Park on the Pacific coast, where they were not originally found. Because Olympic National Park lacks the natural saltlicks of other mountain ranges, the Olympic mountain goats began to pester hikers for the salty minerals in their sweat and urine. One Olympic Park hiker was even gored and killed by an aggressive billy goat in 2010. Olympic Park officials finally decided to eliminate their mountain goat population, transporting hundreds of animals and killing those that could not be safely moved to new areas.

Still, the mountain goats are generally real crowd-pleasers. In Colorado, the easiest way to see a mountain goat is at the summit of Mount Evans. There, a resident herd of mountain goats is habituated to the regular car and bicycle traffic traveling on the highest paved road in North America. There, observers can watch the goats’ characteristic salt-seeking behavior, as the animals lick minerals from the road and from tourists’ cars. Signs warn against feeding the Mount Evans goats or approaching too closely.

The Mount Evans scenic byway to the summit usually opens to automobile traffic for the season in early June. Check colorado.com/byways/mount-evans for more.