Movements and habitat use in an unhunted population of mountain goats, Oreamnos americanus.

Abstract

In Glacier National Park, Montana, the mountain goat population was characterized by high density, large group sizes, low proportion of adult males, very small home ranges, and low kid productivity. Home ranges of adult billies (mean 2.8 km2), mean movements (0.53 km per hour), and visits to a natural mineral lick (mean 9 per year) were significantly less than for adult nannies (4.8 km2, 0.99 km per hour, and 14 lick visits, respectively). Long movements to the mineral lick were influenced by weather. Lick movements were most likely in clear weather, after a recent clearing trend , and with duration since the last lick visit. Mountain goats preferred alpine forb meadows, forb dominated outcrops, forested crops and lick habitat types. Associations between individual marked goats never exceeded 23%. A great deal of individual variation was observed for both billies and nannies in their associations with other marked individuals, average size of groups, and number of lick visits per year. -from Authors