NEWS RELEASES
Removal Of Mountain Goats From Olympic National Park Underway
Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved and first published through The Washington Post's website.
The Washington Post reports that the National Park Service (NPS) has begun moving mountain goats out of Washington State’s Olympic National Park as part of its Mountain Goat Management Plan announced earlier this year. The goats are sedated and blindfolded, before being lifted by helicopter to waiting trucks. Their destination is a forest 100 miles away in the North Cascades mountain range, where the mountain goats are a native species, although few in number.
The goats are not native to the Olympic Range, which makes them an “exotic species” in the eyes of the NPS, but have flourished there since their introduction in the 1920s. The park lacks the salt licks desired by the goats and as a result, rangers say, they are attracted to the salt in visitors’ sweat, food and urine. Some exhibit bold behavior, and in 2010, a park visitor was gored to death. The wild animals have also been destroying vegetation and eroding soils since being introduced, say park officials.
The mountain goat airlift is the first stage of the plan to remove 90 percent of Olympic National Park’s population of approximately 725 goats. Two more relocation periods are planned for next year, relocating some half of the mountain goats. While, eventually, most of the remaining goats will be euthanized. Areas of the park will be closed during these periods.
For updates on the relocation process, visit the Olympic National Park website.
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