Mountain Goats
Mountain goats do not appear in the paleontological, archeological, or historical records of Yellowstone National Park. Recognizing even the incompleteness of the paleontological and archeological records, and the spottiness of the historical record, it still seems unlikely that goats lived in the present park area for several thousand years (Laundré 1990).
Goats were introduced in Montana north of Yellowstone National Park between 1947 and 1959, and in the Absaroka-Beartooth Mountain area between 1942 and 1958, by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (Laundré 1990). The state of Idaho Department of Fish and Game introduced goats near Swan Valley between 1969 and 1971 (Laundré 1990).
Animals from the Montana populations have thrived and now are common north of the park boundary in the North Absaroka and Beartooth Ranges and Gallatin Mountains (Laundré 1990, Varley 1996), and since the 1980s have colonized in Yellowstone Park in those adjacent drainages. A population now appears established in Yellowstone's Pebble and Slough Creek drainages and perhaps Sepulcher Mountain as well (Varley 1996). The Absaroka and Gallatin mountains seem to be the only areas that will likely support substantial, long-term populations in the park (Laundré 1990), but the Absaroka Range, which forms the WyomingYellowstone boundary east of the park appears to be good habitat as well (Varley 1996.)
While goats are not a major element of the Yellowstone National Park fauna, but there is cause for concern over their imminent increase. Houston et al. (1991) noted that goats colonizing Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks "may eventually pose problems to park managers that could prove embarrassingly similar to those experienced at Olympic [National] Park." Exotic goats in Olympic have seriously degraded rare, endemic alpine plants found nowhere else on the continent. While there are no known unique alpine flora in Yellowstone, the alpine area is relatively unstudied, and concerns over potential competition between goats and sheep remain.
Goats are spectacular mammals with many romantic associations among the public; problems with exotic goats in Olympic National Park have been vastly complicated by the animal's public popularity (Houston et al. 1991). It would be well to deal with this situation before the animals become well enough established to have a large constituency among park wildlife-watchers, for whom the sight of goat may be a higher value than the National Park Service's legislative mandates to prevent the spread of exotic species.
Research Recommendations: Mountain Goats
In reviewing the Olympic National Park plight between exotic mountain goats and rare native alpine plant species, the obvious omission from the Yellowstone database is the lack of a serious inventory of alpine plants that may be affected by goats; either by the consumption of those plants or by their wallowing in them. In addition, studies of potential competition between bighorn sheep, mountain goats, elk (or other herbivores) on winter ranges are necessary.
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