Natural History: Life on the Edge

Peaks protected fifty years ago by the Edge Wilderness Act no longer keep mountain goats safe from human impact. any of the planet’s species live—and go ex- acteristics of both goats and antelopes, possessing fragile tinct—in obscurity. An untold number have skulls, and short, dagger-like horns that look similar in yet to be “discovered” by inquisitive humans. males and females. on the They may roam the oceans’ dark depths or This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the passage Life Papua New Guinea’s rainforest canopy, or of the Wilderness Act, the law by which the United States Story and Photographs by Bruce L. Smith wriggle through Congress created the National M the soil beneath our very feet. Wilderness Preservation Sys- Some surprisingly sizable ani- tem and set aside such pris- mals have escaped the prying tine habitats as the Selway- eyes of scientists. Only last Au- Bitterroot and Bob Marshall gust a new species of bamboo Wilderness Areas in my home shark that “walks” on its fins state of Montana. The follow- was observed in Indonesia. A ing definition was made in new primate, the Lavasoa dwarf 1964: “A wilderness, in con- lemur, was discovered in Mada- trast with those areas where gascar last July. And in Brazil a man and his own works dom- second species of a spotted cat, inate the landscape, is hereby the oncilla, and a new species recognized as an area where of tapir—a 240-pound relative the earth and community of of horses and the rhinoceros— life are untrammeled by man, were recorded with camera traps where man himself is a visitor for the first time. who does not remain . an Even cataloged life forms area of undeveloped Federal can dwell in near anonymity, a land retaining its primeval dim existence that can be both character and influence, with- a blessing and a curse. Obscu- out permanent improvements rity may spare such creatures or human habitation, which from intentional exploitation is protected and managed so but also leave them without a as to preserve its natural con- constituency to champion their ditions . .” No large animal defense. One such reclusive and better characterizes the high, seldom-seen species is Oreamnos rugged wildlands than the americanus, a charismatic, shag- American mountain goat. To- gy, horned beast whose only day the goats roam entirely on extant relatives live half a world public lands, which include away. Inhabiting some of North Male mountain goat in its winter coat national parks in six states and America’s remotest wildlands, three Canadian provinces, it might as well roam the Himalayas, like its relatives the though that doesn’t guarantee their protection. gorals (Nemorhaedus spp.) and serows (Capricornis spp.), for how few Americans have seen a mountain goat in the orty thousand years or more ago, ancestral moun- wild. Although it is commonly called the Rocky Moun- tain goats crossed the Bering Land Bridge from Due in part to its tain goat, a more accurate moniker would be the Ameri- Asia to the New World, as did most of North remote habitat, can mountain goat (or just mountain goat), because its F America’s extant and extinct large mammal spe- the mountain goat, native distribution goes beyond the Rocky Mountains cies. The Great Ice Age’s conditions shaped O. ameri- Oreamnos ameri- and includes the Cascade and Coast mountain ranges canus to the cold, rugged environment it roams today, canus, rarely gets of western North America. In fact, these are not “true” from southern Alaska to the western Northwest Ter- championed. goats of the genus Capra, but animals exhibiting char- ritories and southward through Canada into Montana, 22 NATURAL H I S TO RY July/August 2014 July/August 2014 NATURAL H I S TO RY 23 mountaineering skills to hunt this sure-footed climber. Where they stray from steep terrain, bears and wolves more successfully prey on mountain goats. And on rare oc- casions, even wolverines and ea- gles have taken young goats. But starvation, climbing accidents, and deep winter snows claim more goats than do predators. Fluctuat- ing temperatures in the spring pre- cipitate avalanches that sometimes engulf the cliff dwellers. In U.S. and Canadian studies, the smallest and least experienced goats proved most vulnerable to the hazards of their life on the rocks. Half of all newborns may fail to survive their first year, with the mortality of yearlings not far behind. americanus escaped much of the nineteenth-century carnage experienced O. by other large North American mammals killed for profit, pleasure, and subsistence during the settle- ment of the West. Elk and pronghorn antelope Idaho, and Washington. Equipping it with traits that beauty, insulation, and comfort. The white coat reflects Montana’s Selway-Bitterroot Wil- were reduced permit it to seemingly defy gravity on the high peaks, solar radiation, enabling goats to graze on exposed ter- derness provides prime summer from millions to the mountain goat’s specialization starts with the feet. rain in summer, rather than retreating to the coolness of habitat for the mountain goat a mere 50,000 (above), and Jones’s columbine, Oversize, flexible hooves with pliable hoof pads are the forests. Still, on August afternoons they may lounge on Aquilegia jonesii, (right), is one of and 13,000, re- animal world’s equivalent of studded tires. A stocky remnant snowfields to better thermoregulate, and to ease many alpine flowers that grace the spectively, and an body provides a low center of gravity, contributing to the aggravation of insect pests. And, from November mountain goat’s summer range. estimated 25 to its uncanny agility on narrow ledges. While the goat’s through April, most goats favor cliffs and crags that face 50 million bison distant cousins, bighorn sheep, bound crisply across a southerly slanting sun. Like woolly veg-o-matics, they broad ridges and offers food were wanton- slopes and rocky outcrops, the goat is a methodical paw through snow for grasses and sedges, nibble moss- in larger patches, goats may ly slaughtered, plodder and inclined to stick to steeper terrain. (Once I es and lichens from rocks, strip twigs from shrubs, and socialize in groups of ten or leaving fewer watched a goat climb to the top of a dizzying pinnacle sometimes dig the rhizomes of ground-hugging plants. more animals. Conversely in than 1,000 in all and stand with all four feet together on a summit mea- Their unforgiving habitat has no doubt shaped the Alaska and British Columbia’s of the United suring only eight inches square. Then he raised a hind social behavior of mountain goats. A rigid, matriarchal coastal ranges—where snow States by 1887. foot, scratched behind an ear, and shook the dust from social structure limits group sizes to an average of just piles higher than a house— We might as- his white coat, as I looked on in wonder.) two or three animals. Competition for prime feeding goats descend far down the mountains and strip lichens sume that the mountain goat and other mountaintop The goat epitomizes the concept of layering for sites in a vertical world—with mere snacks on precarious from ancient trees in the dark depths of winter. biota would remain buffered from human exploita- warmth. It has a flowing outer pelage that protects a shelves—is fierce. Sparse spacing of animals across rug- Of all North America’s large herbivores, the moun- tion. But that immunity abruptly ended during the cashmere-like mantle of under-fur. From May until Au- ged real estate prevents a population from depleting its tain goat (rivaled only by the musk ox) enjoys the great- latter half of the twentieth century. Industrial and rec- gust, goats progressively shed their shaggy winter coats food supply and forestalls stress and disease that can ac- est freedom from competition with other herbivores for reational development and mechanized travel increas- and slowly adopt trim summer attire. For centuries na- company overcrowding. In some high-altitude environ- food and space—a reward of sorts for its specialization ingly penetrated remote areas. Logging, mining, and tive peoples along the Pacific coast have collected the ments, such as the Rocky Mountain ranges of Colorado and desolate domain. Likewise, most predators, with the motorized recreation sometimes displaced goats from shed hair to weave blankets and garments prized for their and interior Canada, where wind sweeps the snow from exception of the mountain lion, lack the tenacity or the winter ranges, and the survival of young goats declined. 24 NATURAL H I S TO RY July/August 2014 July/August 2014 NATURAL H I S TO RY 25 Hunting became easier; some hard-hit herds in Mon- could not be managed as intensively as deer, elk, and and the mountain goat planet’s ecosystems tana, Idaho, Washington, southern British Columbia, pronghorn, for example, and wildlife and land manag- may serve as a charis- are being stressed and and Alberta were severely overharvested. Over the ers were slow to limit goat harvests and curb motorized matic exemplar. As for- transformed by climate past fifty years, native goat populations may have de- travel in goat ranges. In 1988, Alberta closed goat hunt- ests march up mountain change. The plights of clined by half in British Columbia and by two-thirds in ing province-wide. As herds slowly recovered, conserva- slopes, alpine tundra pikas, meltwater stone- Washington State, based on wildlife agency estimates. tive hunting resumed there in 2001. Other jurisdictions shrinks, and permanent flies, and wolverines Wildlife managers believe that 100,000 mountain have pared back recreational hunting, with most now snowfields and glaciers have gained attention goats remain on the continent today, with less than 15 restricting harvests to discrete breeding herds number- melt, this cold-adapted through public efforts percent of those living south of the Canadian border.

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