Mountain goats were flown to a new home in Washington, but few survived

Hundreds of mountain goats were relocated to Washington state's Cascade Mountains. But most died within a few years, due, in part, to the effects of climate change.

For three summers, wildlife managers wrestled mountain goats in Washington state’s Olympic National Park, blindfolded them and then flew them into the far reaches of the state’s Cascade Range — an ambitious project to boost the goat population in an area where they once were common. 

The researchers released a total of 325 goats into the Cascades from 2018 to 2020. 

Today, most of the goats scientists had been tracking are dead.  

“We were disappointed survival was as low as we found it was,” said Rich Harris, a now-retired state wildlife biologist who led the translocation project.

It’s difficult to know exactly how many mountain goats have survived because not all were tracked. But in a study published in September, Harris found that the probability of a translocated goat living from year-to-year was just 56%. In a sample of 217 translocated goats, 165 had died by the end of 2022. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/mountain-goats-washington-flown-cascades-died-rcna153090

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