Lost Goats?

[Bwana Ken]

A member of a Facebook group I follow posted this photo that he took (date unknown) of some goats that he encountered while on a hunting trip in a remote wilderness area here in Washington state.

He said that the goats didn't seem particularly afraid of him and let him approach quite close (less than 10 yards) before moving off. He said they didn't have collars or other signs of human ownership, but were clearly not overly afraid of humans (as would be expected if they were truly feral goats).

My first thought was that someone's pack goats had wandered away from camp. I can't think of any explanation for why large, healthy, and tame (or semi-tame) goats would be so far up in the mountains.

Ken

[Teckelhut]

From the looks of it, those are two Oberhasli bucks. And they may have very well been turned loose to fend for themselves. Maybe someone could not find homes for them. Like people do here with horses.

[Nanno]

Yep, they look like bucks to me too, so probably not packers. I hate to think that someone would just dump them, but I'm constantly amazed at what people will sometimes do. They sure look fine and healthy!

[Bwana Ken]

I got more information from the guy who took the photo. He saw them (and took the photo) just this past weekend. He insisted that they were in remote area with no other people around (that he knew of...).

The photographer was elk hunting when he saw the goats, and his original question was whether it was legal to shoot feral goats. I advised him against it, saying they may well have been someone's lost pack goats. I was skeptical that, with the large number of predators living here in WA (wolves, bears, cougars, coyotes), goats could survive very long in the wild - unless they were in steep, rocky country (which these weren't).

[Saltlick]

Poor things... they won't last long out there.

[Teckelhut]

Not really. We have wild goats all over western Oregon that started out as someone's farm or pet goats.

[nebs]

I wonder if I brought my goats to the area if they could be caught. They sure are good looking bucks and it would be a cool story how you got them!

[Sanhestar]

if they have been living wild they won't allow humans to get close enough to grab them. I'm facing the same problem right now with two goats that got separated from our herd during pasture moving and ran off. After only two days the flight distance had already increased to approx. 70 feet.