A female mountain goat in the alpine meadow in Montana’s Glacier National Park. When the goats competed with sheep for salt in the park, the goats almost unanimously won.
Forest P. Hayes
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Forest P. Hayes
A female mountain goat in the alpine meadow in Montana’s Glacier National Park. When the goats competed with sheep for salt in the park, the goats almost unanimously won.
Forest P. Hayes
Goat ram! Sheep scram!
That’s pretty much a four-word summary of a new research See what happens when goats and sheep scramble to lick salt – a natural salt mine – above the trees in Montana.
Since this blog is called “Goats and Soda”, we wanted more information so we interviewed the study co-author Joel Bergera professor at Colorado State University and a senior scientist for the Wildlife Conservation Society.
(And if you’re curious how we came up with this blog name, this is the story. If you don’t want to click on embedded links, here’s the summary: Goats are an integral part of life around the world and especially in the lower resource countries we cover. including, where even only a few goats can feed a family, either from milk or meat. Plus, like journalists, goats are curious animals.)
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What was the inspiration for your studies?
Forest Hayes, a Ph. My students [and co-author of the study] and I was in Montana looking for grizzly bears through spotting range, and we kept seeing goats and then sheep.
And you wonder…
Why are they in the trees, in places where there is no food? This is in May [2019]the rest of the winter snow is melting, it’s too high for any plant growth because the temperatures are still pretty cold.
So we’re constantly keeping an eye on goats and sheep in different places, but occasionally they congregate at some of the same spots – very carefully distributed mineral licks.
And they went after the salt in that mineral – which, as you noted before, would be covered by glaciers that are now melting due to global warming?
It’s salt.
How do they know they’ll find salt in the trees, where they don’t normally hang out?
Honey, that’s a really good question. I don’t know if anyone has looked at how these hoofed mammals know how to detect [salt]. I know in desert systems, like the Gobi desert, they can smell the rainfall and know how to navigate and take the rain.
Have you observed some…interactions…when goats and sheep scramble for salt?
More than 106 interactions. The sheep wins 2, all that remains are goats, goats, goats.
As a goat admirer, I can’t say I’m surprised. We have reported on many studies showing how smart goats. But you said you were surprised?
If everything else were equal, I would have expected half [of the interactions] sheep and goats win half because they are similar in size.
But you’ve made an interesting point that you can look forward to are the goats.
It was armchair action but now, yes, it makes sense – goats don’t have many behavioral cues, they get aggressive pretty quickly. Sheep have many postures to communicate. So what will a goat do – bow and lunge at you.
How did the sheep get two wins?
They just refused to leave and walked a few steps to the goats and the goats didn’t want a part of it.
A mountain goat moves towards three stallions near a patch of snow in Glacier National Park. Finally, the goat moved the goats out of the way.
Forest P. Hayes
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Forest P. Hayes
A mountain goat moves towards three stallions near a patch of snow in Glacier National Park. Finally, the goat moved the goats out of the way.
Forest P. Hayes
And lessons learned…
I think it adds an extra dimension to how species in the wild might react as we move into the future – whether it’s humans destroying the environment directly by building roads or running out of water. groundwater depletion or glacial retreat. As resources such as minerals, shade, and patches of snow become more patchy, if these resources are really important to these animals, then there will be conflict.
But we don’t know exactly how it will play out.
We don’t know because no one has researched this before.
Could there be a division over the goats people raise?
That’s a really good question. There may be ramifications for waterholes in the deserts of Asia or Africa. But we [already] know goats can be aggressive.
That means goats will continue to exist and thrive and play a role in helping humans get their milk and meat.
Goats are the root of the human race that has existed for thousands and thousands of years.
But perhaps your findings are not good news for the sheep.
It can be serious for sheep if non-living resources such as minerals, snow patches and water holes [diminish].
Here’s a perhaps odd question: Is there a lesson for humans?
It’s not a strange question at all. Goats and sheep are the cousins of mammals. They fight in places where resources are patchy. What do we think will happen to oil and gas in the Arctic? Russia has consolidated or built at least 18 new military bases over the past 10 years in areas with permafrost or glacial ice. We in Alaska are certainly monitoring and aware of that situation.
I have to ask about another odd thing – in an interview with the Washington Post about your research, you mentioned that goats are interested in… human urine?
It’s a peer-reviewed legitimate scientific study that we did. Basically, people would pee on the trails, and the goats would come off the cliffs and sometimes run down to suck the urine. That’s how they lacked salt.
As a goat lover, may I ask are you a fan of goats?
Sure. I love both the goat lineage and the ancestral goat antelope. They are amazing, they can run very fast, climb mountains. I love the whole family related to goats. They radiate.
Ibex traveled from Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia into Egypt as far as Siberia. And then to Spain. They were remarkably successful.
So are goats GOAT (the biggest of all time)?
They are with me!
