GRANITE FALLS, Wash. — A mountain goat airlifted from the Olympic Peninsula to the North Cascades is dying mysteriously, according to the Tulalip Tribe.
Several agencies, including the National Park Service, the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Forest Service, and local tribes, are working to increase northern Washington's mountain goat population and remove invasive animals from the peninsula that were destroying the endemic population. , relocated 325 mountain goats. plant.
The last of the four operations ended in 2020.
Planning for the project began in 2014 and relocation efforts began in 2018, said Patti Happe, former Olympic National Park wildlife division chief.
A total of 381 mountain goats were captured on the peninsula, Happe said. 325 were released into the North Cascades, 16 were taken to local zoos, and one died.
Some goats reportedly died due to health problems.
Many of the goats flown to the North Cascades are 10 years old and have successfully bred in their new environment, she said.
The average lifespan of a wild goat is about 10 to 12 years, said Dylan Collins, assistant wildlife biologist with the Tulalip Tribal Department of Natural Resources.
KIRO 7 News asked Happe how much money went into this effort.
she didn't answer.
Happe said he didn't think the effort was a failure because the agency's main goal at the time was to get rid of invasive animals that were harming the environment and revitalize the North Cascades' goat population. He said he didn't think so.
KIRO 7 News reached out to the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife for more information.
“There are probably fewer than 3,000 mountain goats currently living in Washington, with the majority living in the Cascade Mountains from south of the Canadian border to near Mount Adams,” the agency said.
An agency spokesperson said recent declines in the North Cascades are likely due to harsher winters, especially those preceding severe droughts.
“In general, climate change is impacting alpine and montane environments, and the species that live in these landscapes, such as mountain goats, more rapidly than other ecosystems,” the spokesperson added.
KIRO 7 News also reached out to the Stillaguamish Tribe, who are also tracking mountain goats. We are still waiting to talk to biologists.
Goat tracking by the Tulalip people:
Tulalip biologists are using GPS collar technology to track 115 mountain goats transported by air.
Collins told KIRO 7 News that as of Tuesday, only three goats had been found.
“I think the goats in the North Cascades are definitely in trouble,” he says. “We are very concerned about the steady decline in goat populations that we have been observing.”
Collins said goats were initially placed on the peninsula to increase hunting opportunities in the area, but the number of exotic animals began to rapidly increase.
“There are a lot of plants that are endemic to the Olympic Peninsula, which means they don't exist anywhere else in the world, so they're pretty rare, and they're not adapted to the intense grazing effects that goats have. And the goats there “The number actually increased significantly more than anyone expected,” he said.
Collins told KIRO 7 News that the native mountain goat population in the North Cascades has been in steady decline for more than a decade.
“During the '60s and '70s, there was severe overhunting of mountain goats across the state, which led to the depletion of many populations, some of which have not recovered to this day,” he said. .
“In the 1940s, more than 80 goats were found there, but last year we counted only four. In recent years, we haven't counted more than 10,” he said of White in the North Cascades. I explained about Chuck Mountain.
Collins said the Tulalip Tribe's primary goal was to restore native animal populations in the Tulalip Treaty Area, but the results were not encouraging.
“It was very disappointing. Every time one of the collars breaks, I get a text message. If I don't move within a certain amount of time, I send a death single. I receive a steady text message almost every day.” he said. “Deaths continue to occur.”
The tribe recently lost three goats in December and January, he said.
KIRO 7 News asked Collins if his team was able to find the dead goat to uncover the reason behind the mysterious death.
“For the vast majority of goats, we can never get close to them. They die on very steep slopes, and even with helicopters we can't get close to them,” he said.
However, his team was able to find several goats with different causes of death.
“There's no single cause for all of these. Some of these seem to be in pretty good health. Some are feeling unwell or looking a little older. One or two. One was a predation event. But by the time we got there, it was impossible to determine whether they died of natural causes or were simply eaten by something like a bear afterwards. It was possible.”
The cause of the mysterious death is not clear, but Collins said there are several factors to consider, including climate change, human disturbance and habitat loss.
KIRO 7 News asked Collins if he thought the effort was a failure.
“I don't think it's a failure. We can learn a lot from this and combine mortality data from translocated goats with helicopter surveys of declining native goat numbers. I think they recognize each other and there are a huge number of missing goats, whether they were native or introduced from the Olympics. “This is a big problem,” he replied.
South Cascades:
Collins told KIRO 7 News that his team has seen contrasting data near Mount St. Helens, where mountain goats are doing quite well.
He added that his team is finding more goats in the area than ever before, and that many goats are recolonizing the area naturally.
“There are some insights we need to learn from those areas about how goats are doing and figure out what exactly is going on in that landscape and how we can recreate that in the North Cascades. ” he shared.
New technology:
The Tulalip Tribe, along with other tribes, plans to use new technology to track down the remaining mountain goats.
Biologists use camera traps that capture movement in the wild along with infrared images.
Collins said new technology could help find some of the missing data.
“We're trying to see if we're missing goats with regular helicopter surveys. For example, if they're hiding behind a tree, we might miss them. But the heat from the drone Images may be able to capture them,” Collins added.
Stillaguamish tribal leaders shared a document detailing the tribe's new goat monitoring project.
This monitoring effort will use thermal imaging drones and science to focus on how climate change and other stressors are impacting goats. The project will take place in the Mount Baker National Forest and Snoqualmie National Forest on the western slopes of the North Cascades.
