What Is Known about Mountain Goats and a Model for Studying Large Mammals

Mountain Goats. Ecology, Beha-vior, and Conservation of an Al-pine Ungulate . Festa-Bianchet, M., and Côté, S. D. . 2008 . Island Press , Washington , D.C. 277 ( xii + 265 ) pp. $45.00 (paperback) . ISBN 978-1-59726-171-5 . While reading Marco Festa-Bian-chet and Steeve Côté's book on mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus), I thought back to more than 20 years ago when I was a wildlife biologist in Montana. We were trying to design hunting quotas for a species that seemed to tolerate surprisingly little harvest in native populations, although more harvest in introduced populations. We often discussed why this species seemed to be so different than other ungulates. If we only had had this book then. Results presented in Mountain Goats. Ecology, Behavior, and Conservation of an Alpine Ungulate are from 16 years of observations of the behavior, reproduction, and survival of marked, known-age individuals. Almost the entire population of mountain goats was marked at Caw Ridge, northern Alberta, Canada, and many were followed throughout their lifetime. This alone is an unbelievable feat, given the hard field conditions and difficulties of finding long-term funding. Not only do the authors describe the ecology, social organization, growth, life-history strategies, and population dynamics of an unhunted, relatively isolated native population of mountain goats exposed to all their native predators, they also compare and contrast their results with those from the few other long-term studies of individually marked large ungulates, especially those on bighorn sheep. Thus, the results were put into a larger perspective, and they could show that, yes, mountain goats are different from most other ungulates. Festa-Bianchet and Côté also provide a life-history explanation for the observed differences between native and introduced populations. I was impressed by how these scientists combined rigorous scientific research to the understanding of fundamental ecological principles and to show how their results were relevant to improve the conservation efforts, monitoring, and management of hunting of this very special ungulate. Goats are especially sensitive to helicopters, human disturbance, hunter harvest, and global warming. In addition, the Caw Ridge study area is threatened by an open-pit coal mine. The authors point out that the current lack of knowledge about the evolutionary impacts of hunting is a serious concern. This also would apply to other human activities that cause systematic changes in survival or reproductive rates. This subject needs more research by conservation biologists. The authors also show convincingly that the study of the population dynamics and life histories of large mammals requires long-term, individually based data to give credible results. They also kept high ethical standards by continuously evaluating their methods and quickly changing them when they found that capturing mothers with kids caused abandonment and chemical immobilization of young females delayed primiparity. Festa-Bianchet and Côté recognize the study's shortcomings. Almost no winter field work was conducted, for understandable reasons. So the cause of 80% of the losses and winter habitat use are unknown. They were unable to determine the mother of most of the kids because capturing mothers caused kid abandonment, but they can solve this problem with their DNA samples. The study prioritized females, which is understandable. Nevertheless, with genetic samples of 98% of the goats from the past 10 years, the authors promise to soon study male reproductive strategies. I recommend this book highly. It is appropriate for both scientists and people just interested in mountain goats. It should be required reading for all mountain goat managers. The book is extremely well written and was hard for me to put down. The figures are good (except for figure 1.8, which shows goat distribution at a too-small scale) and informative additions to the text. There is a short summary at the end of each chapter, and the statistics and scientific names are placed in appendices for those who are not used to them. This is not just the definitive book about the ecology and conservation of mountain goats. It is also a model of how populations should be studied and about how the results of population studies should be translated into concrete recommendations for the species' conservation and management. At the end, the authors promise to continue their work to conserve mountain goats and their habitats, and I believe they will.

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