The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals: A Book of Personal ObservationsHornaday, William T. (William Temple)
Science
The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals: A Book of Personal Observations
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
Animal behavior
THE GOATS. White Mountain Goat.--I never have had any opportunity
to study at length, in the wilds, the mental traits of the
markhors, ibexes, gorals or serows. I have however, enjoyed rare
opportunities with the white Rocky Mountain goat, on the summits
of the Canadian Rockies as well as in captivity.
Where we were, on the Elk River Mountains of East Kootenay, the
goats had little fear of man. They did not know that we were in
the group of the world's most savage predatory animals, and we
puzzled them. Fourteen of them once leisurely looked down upon us
from the edge of a cliff, and silently studied us for a quarter of
an hour. An hour later three of them ran through our camp. One
morning an old billy calmly lay down to rest himself on the
mountain side about 300 feet above our tents. At last, however, he
became uneasy, and moved away.
This goat is not a timid and fearsome soul, ready to go into a
panic in the presence of danger. The old billy believes that the
best defense is a vigorous offense. On the spot where Cranbrook,
B. C., now stands, an old billy was caught unawares on an open
plain and surrounded by Indians, dogs and horses. In the battle
that ensued he so nearly whipped the entire outfit that a squaw
rushed wildly to the rescue with a loaded rifle, to enable the Red
army to win against the one lone goat.
In those mountains the white goat, grizzly bear, mountain sheep,
mule deer and elk all live together, in perfect liaison, and never
but once have I heard of the goat getting into a fight with a
joint-tenant species. A large silver-tip grizzly rashly attacked a
full-grown billy, and managed to inflict upon him mortal injuries.
Before he fell, however, the goat countered by driving his little
skewer-sharp black horns into the vitals of the grizzly with such
judgment and precision that the dead grizzly was found by Mr. A.
B. Fenwick quite near the dead goat.
We know that the mountain goat is a good reasoner in certain life-
or-death matters affecting himself.
He knows no such thing as becoming panic-stricken from surprise or
fear. An animal that looks death in the face every hour from
sunrise until sunset is not to be upset by trifles. We have seen
that if a dog and several men corner a goat on a precipice ledge,
and hem him in so that there is no avenue of escape, he does not
grow frantic, as any deer or most sheep would do, and plunge off
into space to certain death. Not he. He stands quite still, glares
indignantly upon his enemies, shakes his head, occasionally grits
his teeth or stamps a foot, but otherwise waits. His attitude and
his actions say:
"Well, it is your move. What are you going to do next?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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