Mountain goats thriving in Oregon Cascades
BEND, Ore. (AP) — The mountain goat population appears to be growing on Central Oregon's Mount Jefferson, two years after Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs returned the high-climbing animals to the peak.
A second release this summer helped increase the number of Rocky Mountain goats on and around the 10,495-foot volcano.
The Bend Bulletin reports the goats seem to be successfully breeding and caring for new young.
"That population definitely increased considerably this last year," said Steven George, district wildlife biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
George said nanny goats typically produce twins when they are receiving good nutrients and are generally healthy, and aerial surveys show several pairs of kids.
Half of the mountain is on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation and the other half lies within the Willamette National Forest.
The ODFW and the tribes in July 2010 released 45 mountain goats onto a flank of Mount Jefferson in a remote section of the 640,000-acre reservation. In July, the state agency and the tribes released an additional 24 goats, said Doug Calvin, program manager for wildlife, parks and enforcement with the tribes.
Three mountain goats died shortly after the 2010 release — two in falls and one possibly in a cougar attack. Calvin said he believes none of the goats released this year have died.
There are no plans for more releases, he said. "We've got a pretty good start on the population," Calvin said.
Overhunting wiped out the goats in the 1850s. They were prized for their horns and hide but not their meat.
Oregon began a program to reintroduce mountain goats in the Wallowa Mountains in Eastern Oregon, starting with five goats from northern Washington.
Eastern Oregon now boasts a strong mountain goat population, with about half of the 800 mountain goats statewide found in the Elkhorn Mountains near Baker City. ODFW and the tribes plucked goats from the Elkhorns for release onto Mount Jefferson.
A separate program 10 years ago succeeded in reintroducing bighorn sheep to the Mutton Mountains.
If the mountain goats continue to thrive on Mount Jefferson, Calvin said the tribes may eventually hunt the animals.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
Thanks for the hunting tip KVAL..
They were gone for 170 years and we decided to bring them back, even though the species isn't remotely threatened? =/ Are we just TRYING to feed the cougars or what?
 @PleaseBeSmart They belong here. Being hunted out by the 1850's wasn't natural selection. You dislike cougars, too?
@Mr. T.C. @PleaseBeSmart what they did not tell you was they removed the cougars prior to the reintroduction
 @Mr. T.C. Nothing innately "belongs" anywhere. =/ It was their habitat at one time, but in certainly hasn't been for a long time. Does the perfectly thriving population further North really care they're not in the Cascades anymore? Has there been some sort of negative impact on the environment in the last 170 years caused by their absence that I'm not aware of? I don't dislike mountain goats, but I do question the reasoning of spending tax dollars reintroducing them to the area. I also don't dislike cougars, but I do dislike an abundance of cougars and, last I checked, we're already having a problem with that. Btw, when did our species go from being a rightful part of the biosphere, naturally impacting the evolution and survival of other species... to something completely separate whose presence is only an unnatural and unjust intrusion on the other species?
In some countries these animals are pest
@Pit Bull here too.
 @Pit Bull If they were hunted out in the 1850's they obviously aren't that hard to control.
@Mr. T.C. @Pit Bull As I recall, the problem occurred when the Indians shifted their preference to rifles for hunting
Can ya eat em'?