Mountain Goat (Oreamnos americanus)
Class Mammalia
Order Artiodactyla
Family Bovidae
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Distribution | Physical Characteristics | Habits and Behavior | Diet | Reproduction | Status
The scientific name comes from the Greek nymph of the mountains, Oreiad and suggests her presence in America. Mountain goats are not true goats instead being in the goat-antelope category called rupicaprines. They are related to the Chamois of the Alps, but not to any of the other native goats. Mountain goats are to the mountains what squirrels are to the trees.
Distribution: Mountain goats are home in some of the highest country of Alaska Western Canada and the western United States. They occupy the upper limits of plant growth above timberline among the crags and steep slopes of the mountains of Idaho, Montana and Washington, through western Canada and into southern Alaska. They have been successfully introduced into the Black Hills of South Dakota, three mountain ranges in Colorado and the Wallawa Mountains of Oregon.
Physical Characteristics: Mountain goats are stocky, squarish-looking animals with rather short bodies covered in long white hair. They stand about 45 inches at the shoulder and are about 70 inches long. The dense white hair has tints of yellow and contrasts nicely against their polished black horns and hooves. They are short necked with humped shoulders and a long face. Weights run from 150 to 300 pounds with males weighing about a third more than females. Both sexes have slender horns, which average 9 inches and slightly curve backwards. Hooves are large and oval shaped which aids in travel through snow.

Diet: Mountain goats feed on grasses, shrubs, mosses, lichens and sedges.

Habits and Behavior: Mountain goats are social and are usually in groups of 2 to 4 in the summer, but many more in the winter. They are exceptionally sure footed and can walk across nearly sheer cliff walls with only 1-2 inch ridges for footing. They run and jump with ease over steep, ragged rock faces. Males establish small home ranges of about 3-4 square miles. Dominance is uncertain outside the rut. Females are very aggressive.

Summer movement may be 20 times greater than winter movement. They are active night and day, but large movement is not done at night. Wintering grounds are the lower south facing slopes and may be quite small.

Reproduction: There is some fighting for females among males, but it pales in comparison to fights among other ungulates. During courtship males approach females very submissively by almost crawling and making noises similar to kids. Kids are born from May through June in areas away from the herd. Generally only a single kid is born to a female. They weigh about 6 pounds. Nursing continues until September and they remain with the female until the following spring.

Predators on the goats include mountain lions, bears and eagles. Golden eagles carry off kids and supposedly knock yearlings off cliffs. The goats are most susceptible in the winter when they have moved down to lower slopes and lost the advantage of the steep inaccessible high crags.

Status: Mountain goats have long been a trophy animal for hunters and management began as long ago as 1903 with limits of one goat per hunter. Estimates in the 1980's listed Idaho to have about 2,800, Montana 4,450, Colorado 400, South Dakota 300-400 and 12,000 in Alaska.