Submitted by WashingtonPass t3_zgmsln in Washington
TopRevenue2 t1_izjc4xf wrote
A moose walks into a park and we can all celebrate! But mountain goats in the Olympics need to be exterminated, mostly killed and few exiled to the Cascades.
Crackertron t1_izjsmon wrote
Those goats are invasive. Were you unaware?
TopRevenue2 t1_izjtg53 wrote
I am aware that Native Americans reported seeing goats in the Olympics before white people arrived.
newt_girl t1_izjy4i5 wrote
Source?
TopRevenue2 t1_izk35fz wrote
Evidence that mountain goats are a native species includes the following facts:
An early report by John Dunn, published in 1844, stated that "The natives [of the area] manufacture some of their blankets from the wool of the wild goat; which is done with great neatness."
John Fannin and George Bird Grinnell reported in the February 13, 1890 edition of Forest and Stream in an article entitled "Range of the White Goat" that mountain goats were "abundant on the Olympian Range mountains."
A press expedition reported, in the July 16, 1890 edition of the Seattle Press, the sighting of a lone goat in the Olympic mountains.
Another expedition (reported in the April 1896 National Geographic) claimed that mountain goats were present.
In the July 18, 1917 edition of the Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, Albert B. Reagan, Ph.D. (an ethnologist), reported identifying bones of mountain goats in the area. Most, but not all, of the goat bones had been formed into spoons.
These reports--all written before the release of a few goats in the 1920's--are substantial evidence that mountain goats are native to the ONP and an important part of the local ecology.
newt_girl t1_izlbae0 wrote
Thanks for that info. I guess I've got some weekend reading to do!
Ok_Function_439 t1_izjrviq wrote
Why?
TopRevenue2 t1_izjttxi wrote
Great question - most likely bc the park did not like the headache of managing a thriving population
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