Mountain goat relocation resumes in Olympic National Park

By Elaine Thompson The Associated Press

5 years ago

Derrick Halsey, a wildlife capture specialist known as a "mugger," hands off a kid mo ... — Derrick Halsey, a wildlife capture specialist known as a "mugger," hands off a kid mountain goat to Olympic National Park Wildlife Branch Chief Patti Happe Tuesday, July 9, 2019, after airlifting the goat and two others to Hurricane Ridge in the park near Port Angeles, Wash. For the second straight summer, mountain goats are flying in Olympic National Park. Officials this week began rounding up the sure-footed but nonnative mammals from remote, rugged parts of the park so they can be relocated into the Cascade Mountains, where they do belong. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Olympic National Park Wildlife Branch Chief Patti Happe reaches toward a pair of mountain goats, including a billy, top, and a nanny, to settle them on the back of a truck after they were airlifted by helicopter Tuesday, July 9, 2019, to Hurricane Ridge in the park near Port Angeles, Wash. For the second straight summer, mountain goats are flying in Olympic National Park. Officials this week began rounding up the sure-footed but nonnative mammals from remote, rugged parts of the park so they can be relocated into the Cascade Mountains, where they do belong. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

As others tend to two adult mountain goats on a flatbed truck in front of him, Derrick Halsey, a wildlife capture specialist known as a "mugger," carries a kid mountain goat from a helicopter Tuesday, July 9, 2019, on Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park near Port Angeles, Wash. For the second straight summer, mountain goats are flying in Olympic National Park. Officials this week began rounding up the sure-footed but nonnative mammals from remote, rugged parts of the park so they can be relocated into the Cascade Mountains, where they do belong. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Hands hold down the feet of a kid mountain goat being examined by a team of veterinarians and assistants Tuesday, July 9, 2019, after being captured and airlifted to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park, near Port Angeles, Wash. For the second straight summer, mountain goats are flying in Olympic National Park. Officials this week began rounding up the sure-footed but nonnative mammals from remote, rugged parts of the park so they can be relocated into the Cascade Mountains, where they do belong. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

A billy mountain goat, blindfolded, hobbled and sedated, has a tracking collar put on him while also being examined by a team of veterinarians and assistants Tuesday, July 9, 2019, after being captured and airlifted to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park, near Port Angeles, Wash. For the second straight summer, mountain goats are flying in Olympic National Park. Officials this week began rounding up the sure-footed but nonnative mammals from remote, rugged parts of the park so they can be relocated into the Cascade Mountains, where they do belong. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

A pair of blindfolded and hobbled mountain goats, including a billy, right, and a nanny, are cradled by workers in the back of a truck after being airlifted by helicopter Tuesday, July 9, 2019, to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park, near Port Angeles, Wash. For the second straight summer, mountain goats are flying in Olympic National Park. Officials this week began rounding up the sure-footed but nonnative mammals from remote, rugged parts of the park so they can be relocated into the Cascade Mountains, where they do belong. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK, Wash. — For the second straight summer, mountain goats are flying in Olympic National Park.

Officials this week began rounding up the sure-footed but nonnative mammals from remote parts of the park, where humans introduced them in the 1920s, to relocate them to the Cascade Mountains, where they do belong.

Animal capture specialists called “gunners” and “muggers” sedate the animals with darts or capture them in nets, blindfold them, pad their horns and fly them — on slings dangling from a helicopter — to a staging area. There, they’re looked over by veterinarians and outfitted with tracking collars before being trucked to the Cascades and once again flown by helicopter, this time into their new alpine habitats.

The relocations began last year, following a years-long stretch of planning and public comment, with 115 of the roughly 725 mountain goats in the Olympics being moved to the Cascades.

Officials captured 17 Monday and Tuesday at the start of a two-week goat relocation period, including a kid about 6 weeks old, which got a ride on a mugger’s lap inside the helicopter instead of hanging beneath it.

The Olympics have few natural salt licks. That makes it more likely goats there will be attracted to the sweat, urine and food of hikers, potentially endangering the hikers. One goat fatally gored a hiker in 2010.

A coalition of state and federal agencies and American Indian tribes is behind the effort, which involves closing parts of the park, including the Seven Lakes Basin and Klahhane Ridge. A second two-week closure period is planned for August.

“Mountain goat relocation will allow these animals to reoccupy historical range areas in the Cascades,” Jesse Plumage, a U.S. Forest Service wildlife biologist, said in a news release.

The capture of the goats was contracted out to Leading Edge Aviation, a company that specializes in animal capture and relocation.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife plans to release the goats at six sites in the Cascades. They include the Chikamin area in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, Preacher Mountain in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Hardscrabble Ridge and mountain peaks south of Darrington.

Rich Harris, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist leading the agency’s work to move the goats, told The Seattle Times this month that of those relocated last year, about 65 to 70 survived the winter. Half of the 10 relocated kids survived, he said.