Too young to be released into the wild alone, five mountain goats started their new lives over at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park Tuesday.
The six-month-old goats, still considered kids, were captured during the relocation of more than 100 mountain goats at Olympic National Park. In September, the National Park Service, US Forest Service, and Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife began moving the mountain goats to the Cascades, their native lands.
Humans originally moved the goats to the Olympic Mountains, a move that’s since caused environmental and recreational concerns.
Out of the 115 goats captured in September, 98 were relocated to the Cascades. Crews captured six young goats, without their mothers, who could not be moved to the Cascades.
“If you leave them orphaned their survival rate isn’t great, and we certainly couldn’t release them without their moms,” said Olympic National Park Wildlife Branch Chief Patti Happe.
After two months of supervised care at Northwest Trek, five of the goats were released into the facility’s 435-acre grounds Tuesday morning.
“This is going to be a pretty big change for them because they’ve never been out here before,” said Northwest Trek Zoological Curator Marc Heinzman.
Heinzman said the goats would be fed and checked on daily so they should be visible to park visitors.
“They seem to really like our staff,” said Heinzman. “I think they’re going to like our visitors too.”
One of the goats released Tuesday will eventually be sent to another zoo. The sixth kid captured in September will be on display at Woodland Park Zoo, according to Heinzman.
