Seasonal distribution and aerial surveys of mountain goats in Mount Rainier, North Cascades, and Olympic National Parks, Washington

Jenkins, Kurt J.; Beirne, Katherine; Happe, Patricia J.; Hoffman, Roger A.; Rice, C.L.; Schaberl, Jim

doi:10.3133/ofr20111107

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 9 publications

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“…Eight of the study areas were located within the Cascade Mountain Range; the remaining area was located within ONP (Houston et al 1994). We aggregated data originating from 7 independent investigations (Rice 2008;Jenkins et al 2011Jenkins et al , 2012Vales et al 2016;Sevigny et al 2021;Harris et al 2022) into our 9 study areas (Table S1, available in Supporting Information). In most cases, geographic aggregation was straight-forward; however, Rice (2008) monitored mountain goats in several different sites within the Cascade Mountain Range.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Survival of adult mountain goats in Washington: effects of season, translocation, snow, and precipitation

Harris,

Happe,

Moore

et al. 2023

J Wildl Manag

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Elucidating patterns of adult survival rates is key to understanding population dynamics of large mammals. We used data from 7 separate studies of mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus) conducted from 2002 through 2022 in western Washington, USA, to quantify survival rates in relation to key biotic and abiotic factors using known fate models implemented in program MARK. We monitored 324 (206 females, 118 males) radio‐marked mountain goats for 178,339 days. A substantial number of mountain goats in our sample (n = 217) had been translocated from the Olympic Peninsula to the Cascade Mountains on Washington's mainland, providing an added opportunity to examine translocation effects. We adopted a sequential modeling approach, first building a set of models to examine fundamental survival patterns by age, sex, season, study area, and translocated status. We used variables retained from the top model in a second set to investigate relationships between annual survival and local weather covariates hypothesized by previous studies to influence mountain goat behavior, habitat selection, and vital rates. Survival among adult females in spring was slightly lower than other sex and age categories, but seasonal patterns were otherwise not evident. There were significant negative relationships between survival and winter snow depth, an index of the previous year's drought, and mean daily temperature during the previous May, and a positive relationship with previous year's precipitation. Weather effects were similar among resident and translocated animals. By the end of the study period, weather effects had evidently contributed to reductions in mountain goat survival to a level low enough that population stability was unlikely. Because the frequency of droughts and warm spring temperatures are expected to increase with climate change, mountain goat populations in Washington will likely be increasingly challenged as the atmosphere warms.

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Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Survival of adult mountain goats in Washington: effects of season, translocation, snow, and precipitation

Harris,

Happe,

Moore

et al. 2023

J Wildl Manag

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Reconstructing mountain goat history in the Olympic Mountains, USA

Oscarson,

Landguth,

Wallin

2024

Population Ecology

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Between 1925 and 1930, 11 or 12 non‐native mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus) were translocated from Alaska and British Columbia to the foothills of the Olympic Range. By 1970, descendants of these goats had colonized the entire range and concerns about the management of this introduced species developed as damage to alpine soil and vegetation occurred. A series of removals reduced the population from 1175 in 1983 to 389 by 1990, eventually growing to 584 in 2016. We used demographic and genetic data to parameterize a population genetics individual‐based simulation model of the Olympic Range mountain goats. We calibrated the model to replicate the population trajectory for Olympic mountain goats from establishment in the 1920s through the 1983 first census. As expected, modeled population dynamics from 1928 to 1983 mimicked parameter initialization from expanding populations. However, simulated heterozygosity did not align with observations, suggesting a process not accounted for within the simulation model, such as a bottleneck or founder effect. Sensitivity analyses showed changes in annual reproductive rate, juvenile mortality, and adult female mortality influencing population trajectories, but variation in male mortality revealed no changes. Evaluating the population dynamics of the model after removals showed that approximately 80% of the total animals removed during the 1980s needed to be female in order for the observed population estimates to occur. This model has the potential to be used more widely with established or introduced mountain goat populations, as well as to provide an approach for studying other introduced species and their population dynamics.

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Seasonal distribution and aerial surveys of mountain goats in Mount Rainier, North Cascades, and Olympic National Parks, Washington

Cited by 2 publications

References 9 publications

Survival of adult mountain goats in Washington: effects of season, translocation, snow, and precipitation

Survival of adult mountain goats in Washington: effects of season, translocation, snow, and precipitation

Reconstructing mountain goat history in the Olympic Mountains, USA

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