Invasive goats rebounding in Tetons after cull; whither Spearditch Canyon?

In 2010, the Odd Goddess of Basin and an interested party hiked over breathtaking Siyeh Pass in Glacier National Park where we nearly walked right into to a fearless flock of mountain goats lounging on a rock bench. 

But even after the feds shot scores of invasive goats from helicopters between 2019 and 2022 in Grand Teton National Park a herd is rebuilding. Those critters are the descendants of goats released by Idaho Fish and Game sometime before 1977. Aggressive and feisty mountain goats will drive native bighorn sheep from salt licks and from other wildlife resources 95 percent of the time.

In 2013, 75 percent of Badlands National Park's bighorn sheep died in a pneumonia outbreak tied to contact with a domestic herd. But as South Dakota's wildlife management bureaupublicans release bighorn sheep onto federal lands, ostensibly to knock down a cheatgrass infestation created by the failure of Black Hills forest policy, the GOP-owned Game, Fish and Plunder wants to kill more mountain goats. Bighorn sheep have taken up residence in Deadwood where they have become accustomed to some protection from predators like cougars. 

The State of South Dakota began a goat season in 1967 but only two were killed in 2022 after only two licenses were issued. Spearditch photographer, Les Heiserman has been capturing images of a goat harem born in the canyon after an alleged union between a goat mother and her son and today there are at least 24. No doubt the feds will compel the state to intervene after a goat kills a biker.

Humanity truly has fucked up much of the Earth. In the Pacific Northwest even environmentalists want to shoot some 500,000 barred owls to preserve habitat for the northern spotted owl.

Learn more at the Jackson Hole News & Guide.