In this episode of Sketch and Coffee, Live! I sketched a mountain goat figurine and learned a whole lot more than I expected about where they live, what they are, and what they’re not.
Sketch & Coffee, Live! is streamed daily at 5:30am, Texas Time, at the YouTubes
I always thought mountain goats were just… everywhere. Every time you see a mountain in a movie, there’s a goat standing on it. But the actual mountain goat, Oreamnos americanus, is native only to the Pacific Northwest and the Rocky Mountains, mostly up in British Columbia. They were introduced into the Appalachians around the mid-20th century, mostly for hunting stock, and ended up causing problems where they didn’t belong. Like in Virginia, where they weren’t part of the ecosystem, and they’ve needed special management and hunting permits ever since. There are goats in mountains in the rest of the world, but they aren’t “mountain goats”
These guys aren’t even technically goats. They’re in the Caprinae subfamily, which includes goats, sheep, antelope, and elk, but mountain goats aren’t in the genus Capra like domestic goats or ibex. They’re in their own genus, Oreamnos, and are more closely related to antelope. They split off from the rest of the Bovidae family around 30 million years ago, and the modern mountain goat lineage formed around 2-3 million years ago. They came over the Bering Land Bridge about 20,000 years ago and found a place high up in the crags and said, “Nope, this is where I live now.”
They’ve got a special kind of hoof with a soft inner pad and a hard outer rim that makes them excellent climbers very similar to the bighorned sheep I drew last week. Compared to bighorn sheep, mountain goats live higher up the mountainside, browse on twigs and saplings instead of grazing, and only really compete with sheep for water. They’re more specialized climbers and prefer steeper, less accessible terrain.
Mountain goats live 9-12 years, have one kid per year, and tend to gather in nanny groups with juveniles while males stay solitary or in small bachelor bands. They don’t butt heads like domestic goats, but they’ll still fight off predators. In their native ranges, hunting is tightly regulated to protect the population and genetic diversity. But in places like Virginia, where they’re invasive, there are more permits to keep numbers in check.
Click here to watch the Mountain Goat episode of Sketch & Coffee, Live!
If you or a teacher friend of yours has need of a 20-30 minute lesson plan about mountain goats, feel free to download this one:
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