The Mentor: Game Animals of America, Vol. 4, Num. 13, Serial No. 113, August 15, 1916Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
History
The Mentor: Game Animals of America, Vol. 4, Num. 13, Serial No. 113, August 15, 1916
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
Game and game-birds -- United States; Wildlife conservation -- United States
The mountain goat looks a bit like a snow-white pigmy buffalo with
small black horns, and long, shaggy hair. It carries its head low, and
its stick-like legs give it a stilted and awkward gait. Its shoulders,
neck and hindquarters are covered with long, coarse hair, and when
the animal is seen on a mountain-top the first thought is: “How _very
white_ it is!” I have compared a clean goatskin with a snowbank, and
the latter had only one small point the advantage. The goat’s hair
shows just a very faint tinge of pale yellow.
[Illustration: ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT]
The real home of the Rocky Mountain goat is British Columbia, Alberta,
and Southern Alaska, but detachments are even yet found sparingly in
northwestern Montana, Idaho and Washington. The species should be
introduced in the Montana National Bison Range, the Yellowstone Park,
and a dozen other places, particularly in Washington and Oregon. It
has plenty of stamina, it breeds successfully in captivity, and I
believe that it can survive and thrive in any mountain region that
is sufficiently cold and _dry_. It can _not_ endure rain in winter!
Everywhere in the United States where this remarkable species still
survives, it should at once be given complete protection. In Glacier
Park it is now almost a common occurrence for visitors to see wild
mountain goats. I saw two myself, near the Sperry Glacier, in 1909, and
the flocks are undoubtedly much more numerous to-day.
[Illustration: CARIBOU
In its summer coat, with its antlers “in the velvet”]
Mentally and temperamentally the mountain goat is a remarkable animal.
It seems to have no nerves! Under no circumstances does a goat lose its
head--until it has been shot. Only a few months ago (December 25, 1915)
two badly rattled white-tailed deer jumped off the Croton Lake railroad
bridge on the Putnam Railroad, near New York, a distance down of about
40 feet, and both were killed by the leap. Two mountain goats would
not have done that. They would have “stood pat” to the last second,
and waited to see what the locomotive really meant to do. Deer and
sheep are hysterical animals, and when cornered will leap off ledges
to certain death; but the goat, never! He stands at bay, and calmly
waits to see what will happen. That is why Mr. John M. Phillips, State
Game Commissioner of Pennsylvania, was able in 1905, at the risk of
his life, to obtain at a distance of eight feet the surpassingly fine
photograph shown herewith. Considering it in every way, I think that
this is the finest wild animal photograph I have ever seen, and surely
one of the best that has ever been made.
[Illustration: CARIBOU FAWNS
In the New York Zoological Park]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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