If its acrobatic acts along cliffs and rocky ridgelines didn't engross us enough, the snow-coloured mountain goat may puzzle onlookers all the more with the revelation that it isn't, in fact, a goat.
Despite having "goat" in their name, these white woolly phantoms of the alpine more accurately belong to the mountain antelope family. Perhaps that's what makes their spectacle in our Columbia Mountains so otherworldly?
The Hermit Meadows campground, just an hour or two up a steep trail from Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park, is a daytime and overnight destination situated right at the foot of mountain goat country.
One Monday, Sept. 1, a herd of seven adults and two kids grazed through the tall green meadows and clambered up and down the steep river valley just a few hundred metres from the camp. The billies bore their brilliant white woolly coats, their piercing keratin horns sparkling in the summit sun. (Mountain goat horns use the same material as our human nails.)
Meanwhile, the hair-shedded nannies napped and played with their curious little ones, always leading the way and occasionally turning to keep the more boisterous billies at bay. Over the course of 12 to 14 years, the young will grow to weigh between 60 and 100 kilograms, from a diet rich with grass, lichen, moss, sedge and flowering plants.
Not only is B.C. one of only seven provinces and states in North America where these acclimatized alpinists adventure, its home to a whopping 50 per cent of their global population. For this reason, Mount Revelstoke and Glacier national parks are privileged to host many a mountain goat year-round.
The Asulkan Valley, for one, was named nearly 140 years ago by settler William Spotswood Green to recognize the abundance of mountain goat he witnessed there. Fast forward to today, motorists should even watch out for these clever climbers wandering all the way down to the Trans-Canada Highway to lick salt off the asphalt.
Besides run-ins with vehicles, these elusive and emblematic animals naturally face enough perils evading cougars, wolves and bears, and avoiding the same rockslides and snow avalanches that humans fear. On the bright side, their thick undercoats and outer guard hairs enable them to brave winters as cold as -50 C — far out of reach of any predator or person.
If we can be mindful of them along our roads and leave ample space when encountering them in their high-elevation homes, we can play our small part in the longevity of B.C.'s mountain goat herds.
