Wild Sheep and Mountain Goat

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Mountain Goat (Oreamnos americanus)

British Columbia is the recognized home for approximately half of the world’s Mountain Goat population.

Description of Mountain Goats 

The universally white colour of the Mountain Goats suggests that the species evolved for thousands of years in close association with snow and ice. Male and female goats look similar, but certain characteristics make them slightly different. these are:

• The horns of the goat 
• Goat behaviour as a clue to gender
• Social groupings 

Adult female goats (nannies)

• Nannies weigh on average 55 to 75 kg
• Nannies' horns are more slender at the base and bit more curbed toward the tip than those of billies
• If the social group contains kids (goats under a year of age) and yearlings (goats that are a year old or that is in its second year), the adults are almost certainly nannies, unless it’s the mating season (generally mid-October through late-November)

Adult male goats (billies)

• Adult males weigh on average 70 to 120 kg
• Lone adults and those in groups of two or three with no accompanying kids or yearlings are usually billies

Similarities of nannies and billies 

Both sexes have black stiletto-like horns that can reach lengths of up to 30 cm. These grow throughout the life of the individual and are never shed, although they do get broken as a result of individual falls or tumbles that occur simply because of the steep terrain on which Mountain Goats live.

Growth rings on the horns (annuli) can indicate age and new science has shown that comparisons of the pattern of inter-annuli growth can also be used to identify the age at which an individual nanny has had her first kid.

Physical characteristics of the Mountain Goat

The Mountain Goat is built to live in steep, rocky terrain. Its forequarters are disproportionately massive in relation to its compact rear end. Its deep chest and tremendously developed shoulder muscles give the Mountain Goat great strength for climbing near vertical cliffs and for pawing through snow for food. Because it has relatively short legs that are close together, and a centre of gravity that is close to the ground and well forward, and because its body is laterally compressed, it can travel along narrow ledges with limited footing.

The goat’s cloven hooves have rough-textured traction pads that project slightly past the rim of the hooves and make them highly specialized for rocky, slippery terrain. Also, its toes can spread widely to distribute its weight over more ground and close pincer-like around rocky projections to provide extra traction on steep downhill slopes.

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Distribution and abundance of Mountain Goats in B.C.

In British Columbia, goats are present in most mountain ranges except for those on Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii, and most other coastal islands.

They exhibit a wide tolerance for climatic conditions, from tidewater along coastal inlets to the Continental Divide and from the arid Similkameen valley to cold and rugged habitats in the Yukon Territory and Alaska. Though mostly confined to prominent mountain ranges, some Mountain Goats occur along river canyons cut through plateaus – for example, the Stikine Canyon and tributaries to the Nass and Skeena Rivers.

An estimated 75,000 - 134,000 Mountain Goats live in North America:

• British Columbia (~39 000– 65 500)
• Alberta (<3400)
• Yukon (~1400)
• Northwest Territories (~1000)
• Alaska (~24,000– 33,500)
• Washington (~4000)
• Idaho (~2600), and
• Montana (~2700)

Over the past several decades populations of Mountain Goats have been moved into new habitats to start new populations in suitable habitats (predominantly in the lower 48 states of the U.S.) and these efforts appear to have been successful at creating new and expanding populations.

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Population management of Mountain Goats

Conservation Status

Mountain Goats are considered secure globally (NatureServe 2008) with a Global Status ranking of G5 (in 2016), and is included on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List category as Least Concern with a stable population trend (IUCN 2008). The species has not been formally assessed at the national level (COSEWIC 2009) but is generally classed as N4 - Secure (2005).

In British Columbia the mountain goat is ranked S3 (in 2015), and was added to the provincial Blue List in 2015 in recognition of localized declines and moderate and imminent threats posed by disturbance derived from human activities, such as: 

• Commercial backcountry recreation and helicopter/off-road vehicle use
• Industrial development
• Habitat loss, and
• Alienation (B.C. Conservation Data Centre 2018)

Mountain Goats remain as priority 1, the highest priority rank, for Goal 2 “Prevent species and ecosystems from becoming at risk” by the British Columbia Conservation Framework, a tool to assess and rank species and ecosystems for conservation action (B.C. Ministry of Environment 2009).

Management of Mountain Goat in B.C.

The Province completed the Management Plan for the Mountain Goat (Oreamnos americanus) in British Columbia (PDF, 2.4MB) in 2010. The management goal for Mountain Goats in British Columbia is, “…to maintain viable, healthy and productive populations of mountain goats throughout their native range in British Columbia”. Management objectives include:

• Maintaining functioning, suitable and connected mountain goat habitats
• Implementing adaptive management approaches to improve the mitigation of threats to mountain goats
• To maintain and conserve resilient populations of Mountain Goats that protect opportunities for Indigenous cultural and traditional uses, as well as for other non-consumptive and consumptive users. 

To support these objectives the Province has protected important habitats, established conservative harvest management procedures and policies, and developed partnerships with academia, researchers and non-government organizations that continue to improve our overall scientific understanding of Mountain Goats and their conservation.