Fifty mountain goats were moved from the Olympics to the Cascade Mountains during a final relocation effort earlier this month.
During the most recent effort, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) released the goats at 12 sites in the North Cascades.
Since Sept. 2018, crews moved 325 mountain goats as part of the National Park Service’s (NPS) 2018 mountain goat management plan to remove 725 goats from Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park.
In addition to the goats that were relocated, 16 were taken to a zoo, 22 died while being captured, four died in transport, six that weren’t fit to be relocated were euthanized and eight that couldn’t be safely captured were killed.
Several agencies involved, including NPS, WDFW and the U.S. Forest Service, called the project a success, saying it took fewer hours to fly the goats to a new habitat, and capture success was better than expected. Before the agencies started removing the goats, staff estimated they could capture about 325-375 animals over four two-week periods.
The goats were harder to capture as the project continued, which the agencies said they predicted. In the first round of capture, 5.2% of the captured goats died compared to 9.1% in the final round, according to the agencies. It also took longer to helicopter to goats with flight hours increasing from 0.59 hours per goat to 1.31 hours over the same time period.
Mountain goats are not native to the Olympic Peninsula and have posed an environmental problem. A hiker was also fatally gored by a goat in 2010.
By relocating the goats, wildlife officials hope to bolster native populations in the Cascades. The area also has natural salt licks, which means the goats don’t have to rely on human sweat or urine for salt.
In July, the agencies said staff would start lethally removing remaining goats in the Olympics in fall.