Fortunately for him, the goat is not much sought by white men as food; its head is not inordinately prized as a trophy, and therefore he will survive on his wild and awesome summits long after the last sheep head has gone to grace some hunter’s “den,” and its flesh has been devoured by the golden eagles.
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.
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.
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.
