Kind of funny for me seeing this thread today as I spend several hours last night going through the video I have taken during the goat captures I was involved with, for a goat conservation/hunt video another member on here is putting together.
Very true that goats don't get near the attention or funding that sheep do. This isn't due to disinterest by the biologists. In fact, the most excited I have ever seen biologists in several states is while we were doing mountain goat work. Granted, a good bit of that was due to the fact that most of them had never had that opportunity before. I was also there when a friend of mine checked in his goat in Bozeman last fall and got to have a really good conversation with the biologist there that is most involved with region 3 goat management. She was very excited to get to see that billy and hear all about our hunt. She also works with Pete at the Goat Alliance to organize goat surveys and other issues involving goats. She was thrilled with the results from the Bridger Mountain survey done this past summer and is hoping to increase the number of tags in that unit.
The main issue with goat management is funding. There are so few tags for species like sheep, moose, goats that very little money from tag sales is available for active management. In many states, the majority of the species specific research funding comes from a combination of auction/raffle governor tags and grants often done through university biology programs. In fact, almost all of the capture and research projects in western states and for all species are done in conjunction with institutions of higher learning. Many, if not most state fish and game agencies get very little or no funding from state taxes and depend entirely on tag sales, grants, and PR funds from the feds. With limited funding, they are forced to focus on the primary species that the majority of hunters are pursuing like deer and elk. Auction sheep tags sell for many many times more than goat tags, thus much more $$ is available for sheep research. I know that the Montana goat governors tag sold for significantly more last year than in the past and the majority of that money has to go towards goat management.
As many of you know the goat population in the Crazy Mountains was getting to the point where they were having a negative impact on the available winter range. There was concern that with over grazed winter range, a particularly harsh winter could cause a mass die off event. In response to that as well as complaints from several landowners that controlled access to large parts of the range, FWP began issuing nanny tags for the unit. There was also consideration of a transplant to supplement struggling herds in the western part of the state or establishing a new population in suitable goat habitat. In February of 2016 we caught 20 goats up there to determine if and or what diseases that population carried. Unfortunately, some of the goats were infected with a couple of diseases that so far have not significantly impacted that population. With those results, FWP was unwilling to transplant potentially infected goats to supplement struggling populations. For unknown reasons many native goat populations are declining rapidly and possibly introducing a new pathogen to struggling or stressed animals could hurt them much more than adding a handful of new goats to the population. As far as transplanting them to currently unused suitable goat habitat, it is not as easy as you would think. Now that more is know about the negative impact goats can have to sheep via disease as well as competition for limited winter range, biologist won't put goats where sheep currently live or even where they may transplant sheep to in the future. At least here in Montana, introducing sheep and goats to new areas is a political hot potato. The ranching community has a huge influence over FWP and our legislature. FWP has looked at starting new sheep and goat populations in several areas, but in every case there is at least one (often many) local rancher that do not want it to happen. Usually it is the grazing lease holders of the public land where the sheep and goats would be primarily residing.
Mountain Goats are incredible animals and I hate to see where things are heading for them here in the lower 48. I am really hoping that the biologists like Dr. Garrott and his people at MSU can come up with a viable solution to at least some of the disease issues that these iconic species are facing.
I have posted some of these pics on here in the past, but I'm sure some of you haven't seen them and who doesn't like looking at pics of goats!!
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