Grand Teton mountain goats to be removed to save bighorn sheep

[jackelope]

Given the debate regarding our ONP mountain goat eradication and the wolf airdrop on Isle Royale in Lake Superior, I figure we might as well discuss/debate this one too. Eradicating one of the coolest big game species we have to hunt to save the other coolest big game species we have to hunt...except they're not going to get hunted either, because they're in a National Park...again. This could be good.

Non-native goats "infiltrated" the park....

Grand Teton National Park mountain goats’ time is ticking. To help with habitat competition and keep the spread of disease away from “one of the most unique bighorn sheep herds in the West,” park biologists have decided to kill or remove over 100 of the non-native species over the next five years, the Casper Star Tribune reports.Park biologist Sarah Dewey said that “the decision to eliminate a charismatic creature wasn’t easy, but it was pretty clear.”

The non-native mountain goats infiltrated the park (and Wyoming) from neighboring Idaho, where they’d been introduced in the 1960s and 1970s. In contrast, the “fragile and shrinking” bighorn sheep herd that roams the park has been there “genetically unchanged” for “tens of thousands of years,” according to the Casper Star Tribune.



“The sheep are struggling, and this is kind of one more straw, and is it the straw that will break the camel’s back and send the herd into an irreversible decline? The trouble is, if that happens, we don’t get the sheep back,” said Dewey.

The mountain goats have also recently tested positive for pneumonia pathogens. To keep the bighorn sheep from completely dying off, something had to be done—even if it was a difficult decision to make.

“And so we feel like we need to try this, as well as a lot of other things, to shore up the fate of the sheep herd,” said Dewey. “And so yes, it is hard, it’s one of the more challenging kinds of resource problems that I’ve ever encountered.”

The park plans to use sharp shooters and relocation methods to remove the mountain goats from the area.

https://www.gohunt.com/read/news/grand-teton-mountain-goats-to-be-removed-to-save-bighorn-sheep#gs.022bcg

[Rainier10]

Hopefully they can relocate a ton of them before having to shoot what remains.

Always seems like a wasted opportunity to not offer sharpshooter positions for a fee to hunters.  That would offset some of the cost while providing opportunity to hunters.

[DOUBLELUNG]

I'm in favor of removing the goats.  I'm pretty familiar with this herd and the threats they face, is the NPS also going to close the bighorns' winter range to winter backcountry skiers, climbers and snowshoers, the other threat to the persistence of this unique bighorn herd?  it wasn't the presence of goats that first brought the plight of these sheep to attention, it was the disturbance and disruption by backcountry winter recreationists.

On a side note, although not hunted within the park, these sheep are hunted in Wyoming sheep area 6.  Not much hunting opportunity currently, but if the threats are removed and the herd recovers, more hunting opportunity may be given outside the park.

[JimmyHoffa]

...except they're not going to get hunted either, because they're in a National Park...again.

Except Teton was a national park that did allow hunting for elk until last year I think.  Reason for stopping was too many grizzlies and they didn't want bears killed from hunters being attacked.

[Stein]

I find it interesting how we define some as native and others as invasive.  Neither are truly native, that ground was under a mile of ice at one time.  Both wandered in at some point, What is the cutoff for “native” and why is that timeframe so magical?




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[MtnMuley]

I find it interesting how we can't seem to ever use common sense and or logic to make any decisions these days regarding wildlife issues like this one and several we've been discussing.

[Knocker of rocks]

GTNP does allow some hunting.