Mountain Goats

As we reached around the 10,000 foot elevation on the back side of Mount Timpanogos we encountered a small herd of mountain goats. They were feasting on these lush wildflowers. They allowed us to approach to within about six feet of them. Perhaps we could have even gotten closer but we didn't want to push our luck. We spent about an hour enjoying their company before we moved on up the mountain. In about 2005 a few of us hiked up to the top of Timpanogos and slept overnight on the "saddle". When I woke up the next morning I was greeted by a friendly mountain goat munching grass at my feet. They really are impressive creatures. Mountain goats (Oreamnos amreicanus) are not true goats as the name suggests, but share the family Bovidae with true goats (Capra spp.), gazelles (Gazella spp.) and cattle (Bos spp.). They are in the subfamily Caprinae along with 32 other species including sheep (Ovis spp.) and muskoxen (Ovibos spp.). Mountain goats are the only living species in the genus Oreamnos. Mountain goat males, females, and young are known as billies, nannies, and kids, respectively. The maximum life span of mountain goats is typically around 15 years old for males and 18�20 years old for females (Festa-Bianchet and C�t� 2008). Both male and female mountain goats have horns. For both sexes, horn growth begins at birth and the vast majority of horn growth occurs during the first 3 years of life. Photo © Copyright by Skip Weeks