OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Olympic National Park expects to have revised guidelines for dealing with aggressive mountain goats in place by the time snow begins to melt in the mountains next year.
The move is in response to the death of Port Angeles resident Bob Boardman. The 63-year-old diabetes educator and registered nurse bled to death Oct. 16 on Klahhane Ridge after being gored by a mountain goat known for its aggressive behavior.
Park spokeswoman Barb Maynes said the small section for mountain goats in the park’s Nuisance and Hazardous Animal Plan will be expanded.
Once completed, she said, the section will resemble in “scope and detail” the plan’s sections for bears and cougars.
“I think all of us are seeing mountain goats in a different light,” Maynes said.
“We have certainly learned what mountain goats are capable of, tragically.”
Boardman is the only person to have been killed by an animal in the park’s 72-year history.
No other mountain goat attacks in the park have been reported, though an Allyn man, Mike Stoican, was gored by a goat in Olympic National Forest just outside the southeast corner of the park in 1999.
A necropsy on the mountain goat, which weighed more than 350 pounds, showed that it was in rut for the mating season, Maynes said.
The spokeswoman said it has not been determined if that was a cause for the attack.
“It certainly could have been a contributing factor,” she said, “but there have been many other goats in rut, and this has not happened.”
The necropsy did not find any evidence that the mountain goat had any diseases, such as rabies.
Maynes said it has not been determined what will be added to the mountain goat’s section of the hazardous animal plan.
She said a clause allowing for aggressive mountain goats to be relocated elsewhere in the park will be considered.
The park had posted signs warning of an aggressive mountain goat along trails to the ridge before the attack.
Park rangers started mountain goat behavior-monitoring patrols on the ridge after the attack. No aggressive behavior had been noticed, Maynes said.
Those patrols ceased after snowfall began Sunday. Maynes said those patrols will restart after the snow melts.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
