The mountain goat population in Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest has increased by 40 percent since 2004 and could double by about 2027, according to a 2011 mountain goat census released by the park and the U.S. Geological Survey.
The report released Thursday also shows 11 of the animals inhabit heavily hiked Klahhane Ridge — where in 2004 there were none and where, in 2010, Port Angeles nurse and musician Bob Boardman was gored to death by a goat.
In the same area surveyed as 2004 — above 5,000 feet — mountain goat numbers increased from 217 to 303, Geological Survey wildlife biologist Kurt Jenkins said Friday.
In the new survey — which examined above 4,700 feet — about 344 were counted.
“It’s a statistically significant increase in count,” Jenkins said.
High-density areas were scattered throughout the survey area, but goats were more numerous on Klahhane Ridge, Mount Olympus, Mount Carrie, Chimney Peak, Crystal Peak and Mount Anderson, Jenkins said.
“Those are areas where we’ll typically go into a count area and find more than 10 goats,” he said.
“In the Klahhane Ridge area, we saw 11 where we hadn’t seen any in 2004,” Jenkins said.
“Definitely Klahhane Ridge is one of the areas where we saw an increase in numbers since the 2004 survey.”
The report’s executive summary said if the estimated average rate of population growth remains constant, mountain goat numbers would double in about 14-15 years.
The census — accomplished by helicopter — shows the first increase in the mountain goat population in the Olympics since the 1990s, Jenkins said.
Jenkins said no conclusions can be drawn from the census about the health of the animals.
“All we can tell you is we saw a blip,” he said.
There could have been as many as 430 mountain goats in the park and national forest during the census period from July 18-25, Jenkins said, emphasizing that the census area was greater than in 2004 and that counting techniques were refined to make them more accurate.
Census takers estimated numbers based on mountain goats they actually saw and the probability of mountain goats being in a certain area, employing such factors as terrain, altitude, viewing conditions, vegetation and previous studies, Maynes said, adding that the method was updated from previous census counts.
“It’s an accepted, known fact that when biologists fly census flights, they don’t see all the animals,” she said.
“They adjust the raw count to come up with an estimate.”
The comparison of raw counts, without adjusting for unseen animals, indicates that mountain goat populations reached a peak in the early 1980s, according to the park’s statement on the census.
Mountain goat census takers counted 1,300 of the animals in 1983, including 200 at Klahhane Ridge, where the highest density occurred, according to a park goat management plan revised in 2011 and put together in response to Boardman’s death.
Boardman was killed Oct. 16, 2010, on Switchback Trail on Klahhane Ridge by a mountain goat that was older and larger than average.
It is believed to have been killed by a park ranger later that day.
Boardman’s family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in federal district court in Tacoma seeking unspecified damages from the U.S. government and alleging that the park was negligent in not removing the animal.
The census will be used in an environmental analysis “to analyze a range of options for goat management in the park,” Maynes said.
The park is seeking $370,000 in federal funding for the analysis in the 2013 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, Maynes said.
“Before we embark on that environmental analysis, it’s critical to have accurate and up-to-date information on the population,” she said.
Asked if those options might include mountain goat removal, Maynes said it is “way too premature” to consider what options might be considered, including mountain goat removal, which was employed from 1981 through 1989 and focused on Klahhane Ridge, where it was estimated that 200 mountain goats lived.
A live capture-and-removal operation in the 1980s resulted in the removal of about 325 of the animals, mostly from Klahhane Ridge.
Numerous instances of aggressive mountain goat behavior have been recorded by the park, according to park records, and the park considers the animals “a long-standing management concern,” according to a statement about the census.
The park has asserted it is not liable for Boardman’s death because the mountain goat that killed him cannot be specifically identified.
It enacted stricter measures to deal with aggressive mountain goats and advised hikers to urinate 200 feet from trails for fear of attracting the animals, which are drawn to the salt in urine.
Hikers also were advised to stay at least 50 yards away from all mountain goats.
Mountain goats are a non-native species introduced as a sport animal in the 1920s to an area near Lake Crescent that eventually became Olympic National Park.
“Over the next several decades, the population increased in size and expanded throughout the Olympic Range leading to management concerns by the mid-1970s over the potential impacts of mountain goats on endemic plants, soils, and erosion in subalpine and alpine plant communities,” according to the report’s executive summary.
The report, “Mountain Goat Abundance and Population Trends in the Olympic Mountains, Washington,” is available at http://tinyurl.com/857uqww.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
