Desert’s goat has migrated

The wandering mountain goat that drew hundreds of visitors to Dry River Canyon east of Bend last winter and spring was on the move this summer.

After summertime visits to several buttes in the Deschutes National Forest, the mountain goat — the only one known to be in the area south of Bend — was last tracked in New-berry Crater.

“It’s much better goat habitat,” said Steve George, wildlife biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

ODFW caught the male goat in April, took a DNA sample and outfitted him with a radio collar. Examining his teeth and horns, they determined that he was about 2 years old — the age when many juvenile males break off from the herd to find their own territory.

DNA tests allowed biologists to figure out that the goat came from the Elkhorn herd near Baker City, which has between 400 and 500 animals, George said.

And by searching for the signal from the radio collar a couple times a month — often when researchers were conducting aerial deer surveys — the agency has been able to track the goat’s general movements.

The goat spent the winter and spring in Dry River Canyon, just east of the Badlands, said Corey Heath, wildlife biologist with ODFW. The next spot where the agency picked up the signal from the goat’s collar was around Lava Top Butte, sometime around June, Heath said.

“He hung out there for a while, then moved over toward Hunter Butte and Company Butte,” Heath said.

The goat was there for several weeks in late June and early July. Then he headed to the north side of Newberry Crater, on the outer flank of the caldera, around late July and early August, Heath said.

The last time biologists checked, the mountain goat had ventured into Newberry Crater.

Fish and Wildlife is not doing a detailed study of the goat, Heath said, but is just keeping track of the animal to get a general sense of where he goes and what habitat he prefers.

In winter, mountain goats are drawn to open, windswept rocky areas where they can still find grass to eat during the snowy months, George said. But they also will spend winters in old-growth forests, where they can nibble lichens off trees — and there’s some of those areas for the mountain goat in the Newberry National Volcanic Monument, George said.

“They don’t really move around a lot in winter,” he said. “They don’t hibernate, but they get into spots where they don’t move around much.”

Biologists are also tracking the 45 or so goats the state agency and Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs released on Mount Jefferson this summer, George said. Most of those animals are still in the Mount Jefferson area, he said, but one has been spotted several times on Three Finger Jack.

And although a mountain goat attacked and killed a hiker in Washington a week ago, George said that kind of behavior was “extremely unusual.”

They can be curious around people or indifferent, he said, but the chances of an attack happening again are very small. However, if people do see a goat demonstrating aggressive behavior, they should contact wildlife officials.

The mountain goat now in Newberry attracted a lot of attention over the last year, said Brent Fenty, executive director of the Oregon Natural Desert Association.

“We get a lot of people calling in, asking questions about him,” Fenty said. “It’s been a point of interest. ... There became almost this little fan club with the goat.”

He said that some people have nicknamed the goat “Witty” after Jim Witty, the late Bulletin outdoors reporter.

Mountain goats were native to the Cascades until the 1800s, but were hunted to extinction in the area.

And for a lot of people, it was special to be able to see a mountain goat in the wild, Fenty said.

“It’s a unique experience for most people,” he said.

Kate Ramsayer can be reached at 541-617-7811 at kramsayer@bendbulletin.com.