Did you know that there are Mountain Goats in the Black Hills of South Dakota? I first found out about them a few years ago, shortly before the GF and I left to join her family for a weeks vacation there. I'd been to the Hills once prior, nearly 15 years ago. At that time, I thought I'd seen it all (for this ND flatlander) - first ever antelope, mule deer, elk, and bighorn sheep. Quite a trip for this wildlife junky. Anyhow, a few years ago I found out there are Goats there, too. And boy, was I excited to see one.
And never did. I hauled my binos everywhere I went. Saw all of the animals I'd seen on the previous trip. But no goats. Then to add insult to injury, one of her brothers had several goats walk across the road in front of the car on their trip back to Kansas.
About a year ago the GF convinced me to give the Instagram app a try. Found it to be a pretty interesting way to see other people's hunting/fishing/outdoors photos - and not just people from the U.S. That is when I discovered the Goat Alliance - kind of a DU/RMEF organization dedicated towards goats. Seems that whenever someone would Instagram a picture of the mountain goat they harvested, there would be a comment left under the photo congratulating the hunter(s) on their fine goat - attributed to the "Goat Alliance". So I checked into their organization a bit....
And found out that they were partnering with the South Dakota Game,Fish and Parks department to survey the mountain goat population in the Black Hills this spring - AND they were looking for volunteers to participate!
Drove down on Friday (first day of the survey), arriving in time to meet some of the people involved and get the gist of the plan for the next morning. With about 30 people attending, we split up into groups and headed towards a survey area - my group consisted of myself, a State biologist (Trent) and 3 college kids from the univeristy of Nebraska (Johh, Harley, and Delaney). All four were significantly younger than my 52 years.
Our chosen survey area was Harney Peak, the tallest hill in the Black Hills and a very popular hiking destination with a pretty decent trail. The hike was approximately six miles (round trip), with the first half being a relatively steady incline, the a decline for a short interval, followed by a rapid climb up to the peak. We stopped at several locations along to way to glass for goats, but saw none until we were a couple hundred feet below the crest. Trent and I were bringing up the rear of our group (I think he was just hanging back to make sure I wasn't going to have a heart attack or stroke out) when he spotted a goat through the trees, bedded down on a rocky outcropping. We spent a good 10-15 minutes trying to get a clear look at it (to determine if it was a Nanny or a Billy) when a couple of other hikers coming down from the peak asked us if we were looking at goats. They then informed us that there were two more, just ahead around the next bend in the trail. Sweet!
We hoofed it up the trail about 100 yds and sure enough, they were there - with a third goat also. One of the goats had a collar and an ear tag (from a stocking several years ago) and Trent wanted to get a good look at the tag for it's number. I noticed that if I moved left, I could move up to their level and close the distance on them. I asked Trent if he thought that would be alright and after getting the go ahead, I pulled out my cell phone.
![[Linked Image]](http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/20160423_115657_resized.jpg)
It probably doesn't look it, but that collared billy is about 35 feet in front of me.
The tagged goat (#98) had been seen in the same area during last years survey, along with another billy. The area had been surveyed on Friday also, with both being seen again - but not the 3rd billy, nor the goat down the hill. We spent some time at the peak - glassing and documenting what we had seen - then began the descent. Trent wanted to look over that first goat again to see if he could determine it's sex, so we stopped and dug out our spotting scopes. He found a spot where he could focus in on it pretty well and set about studying it. I decided to do some glassing and after a few minutes discovered 3 more goats on three separate rock formations. Evidently, the Friday survey had seen goats where the two closer goats were located, but the third was a new goat and in an area of the park where goats had never been seen before. Trent thanked me for opening a can of worms, as that area has no trails and they would have to send in someone to backpack overnight to survey it properly, but he also added that would be part of next years survey.
We then traveled to our secondary location where we immediately found three goats - a nanny with two kids. Evidently that is a rather uncommon occurence. Trent was trying to determine for sure that one wasn't a yearling when I found two more goats on the same rock face - another nanny and a kid. That burned most of our day, so we then headed back to the meeting area to see how the other surveyors fared. Our group saw a total of 12 goats - 5 billys, 3 nannies, and 3 kids. One goat (the third goat I found) was too far away and was counted as "undetermined". Never did hear what the group total was, but as I recall they saw nearly 40 the previous day, amongst all the groups. The parks population is estimated to be between 100 - 200 animals, so seeing 40 in a day is a pretty good representation of the whole population
I do have to say this was a blast for me. Just being out in the wild makes a great day, but to see something unique that you've never experienced before - just amazing. Trent was a wealth of information as well as patient as hell. The kids from Nebraska were super nice, too - not at all your stereotypical millennials. There was a group of about 8 of them that belong to their schools "wildlife club" - they all drove up in a van together and pitched tents. Good kids, there.
To make this hunting related, last year a hunt was allowed and two hunters tagged goats in the park - one billy, one nanny. Perhaps they'll have another hunt this year.....
Kaiser Norton
