68 goats, 12 miles, 4500 vertical feet, 14 hours, sweaty, bruised, bloody, sun burnt, and we had a blast!
Today Timber and I decided to go out for a daylong hike to photograph wildlife. We were hoping to see anything from deer to elk to bear and exceptionally mountain goats. We met at 4:15 and hit the trail head by 5:30 a.m. After hiking all day we didn't see any bear, elk, or deer, but we did see 68 mountain goats which is always a blast. I also have some videos that I am currently uploading to YouTube that I will add later and I'm sure Timber will add his (much superior) pictures by the end of the weekend.
After leaving the truck at 5:30 a.m. we had a lot of trouble finding wildlife of any kind. Finally, around 11, we spotted this band of mountain goats on the edge of a glacier.
Soon we witnessed a very interesting set of events. The mountain goats decided they were going to move up the glacier to go to a new spot. Shortly after they started moving, a coyote came running out onto the glacier and chased the goats around. We were shocked to see a coyote at 7200 feet on a glacier but he was there. I did not get any pictures or video of the coyote and I am not sure if Timber did. The following picture is a group of 13 of the original goats that split off from the main herd and headed back down hill. This group included 2 kids which were fun to see.
I also have a video of the goats running across the glacier.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFal49wOQnk[/youtube]
The remainder of the original group continued uphill, unhindered by the coyote. One of those goats was limping, and we were glad to see the coyote not take her down. Later, we counted a total of 14 goats that headed up the hill. The following picture did not turn out the way I intended, but I still like it.
Here is the correct way the picture was supposed to look. This is just two of the goats that went up the ridge.
Some more of the 14 goats.
We then pursued the 14 goats to the ridge top in order to get more pictures of them and after popping over the ridge spotted this herd of 36 goats. I don't know how clear the picture is, but there are a bunch of goats in the snow too. I will add more pictures of this herd later (I just want to keep the pics in chronological order
)
We then continued stalking along the ridge line and got within 60 yards of a group of four nannies (part of the group of 14). Timber got a lot of better pictures of this group.
I did get some video as the nannies eventually took off down the glacier after they noticed us.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDNtyltczAs[/youtube]
Soon we saw even more of the 14 as these two nannies and their two kids came along the ridge line.
Another two nannies with their two kids from the group of 14.
(These are some of my better pictures from the day)
I love this one of the kid.
Here is some video of the nannies and kids fleeing our presence.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lftgOtOW060[/youtube]
A different angle on the nearby herd of 36.
As it was getting late at this point we were ready to head home. On the way, we stalked up successfully on the nearby herd of 36. Here is a picture of a decent nanny in the herd. (Mostly Timber and I were trying to practice correctly identifying billies and nannies.)
Another nanny in the herd (and her kid).
Here is the first billy we were able to identify. This one was sitting by itself some distance away from the herd, but when the herd started to mill around, he got up and presented us with some pictures. We estimate him to be in the 8-9" range (although we may be wrong).
Another angle.
We later identified 2 or 3 more young billies, they were fun to watch because they would kind of run around each other and jump up and down and roll in the dirt. I think Timber may have gotten some video of them.
Timber photographing the herd.
Here is some video of the herd of 36, the lone goat on the left is the billy.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5ymgXL8RWw[/youtube]
One last note, in the end we saw 15 kids out of the 68 goats, we were very happy with this as it seems to be a good sign for increasing the population, now hopefully that coyote will leave them alone.
