Seasonal Habitat Use and Movements of Mountain Goats, <em>Oreamnos americanus</em>, in East-central British Columbia

Abstract

Poole, Kim G., and Douglas C. Heard. 2003. Seasonal habitat use and movements of Mountain Goats, Oreamnos americanus, in east-central British Columbia. Canadian Field-Naturalist 117(4): 565-576.To identify the potential for adverse effects of forest development on Mountain Goats (Oreamnos americanus), we documented the patterns of forest use by goats and the factors influencing goat habitat use. We used a combination of 15 very high frequency (VHF) and six global positioning system (GPS) radiocollars to document the distribution and movements of 21 (15 female, 6 male) goats from 1997 to 1999 in the mountains surrounding the Robson Valley in east-central British Columbia. Because canopy closure reduces the likelihood that a GPS receiver will obtain a location fix, we estimated that GPS collars underrepresented forest use by about 23%. Three goats used separate winter and summer ranges separated by 8-13 km, while most simply exhibited seasonal shifts in elevation. In winter, goats were more often at lower elevations, in commercial forest stands, on southerly aspects, and moved less each hour and over the course of the winter. Goat use declined in areas >500 m from escape terrain and goats were found lower in elevation from evening to dawn compared to daylight hours. Collared goats used high elevation licks, which were either within their home range, or in two cases, 6 and 14 km from their typical home range. We documented use of known mid-elevation mineral licks by three collared goats, but no use of known low elevation (valley bottom and lower slopes) mineral licks. Robson Valley goats appeared to be at relatively low risk from disturbances related to logging, because although forest use was documented during winter, it occurred primarily on high elevation, steep slopes where trees are currently of low commercial value, and goats made little use of low elevation mineral licks. We recommend that in this area a forested buffer of 500 m around cliffs be left to reduce the possibility of adverse effects on goats especially, on southerly aspects above 1300 m.Key Words: Mountain Goats, Oreamnos americanus, British Columbia, distribution, habitat use, home range, mineral licks, movements.the Columbia Mountains to the southwest. Goats were monitored up to 28 km from the main valley. Elevations ranged from 715 m at the northwest end of the valley bottom to surrounding peaks that were generally between 2600 and 3250 m. Shackleton (1999) rated the relative density of goats in the area as moderate. Within a 2700-km 2 census zone (above 1675 m) encompassing the study animals, the goat density was estimated at 0.8 goats/km 2 (Poole et al. 2000). Climate varied with elevation, with a general increase in precipitation and decline in temperature with increasing elevation. Mean July and January temperatures for Valemount, located at 797 m in the centre of the study area, were 15.8 and -11.0°C, respectively, with an average annual precipitation of 503 mm, 180 mm of which fall as snow (Environment Canada climate normals, unpublished...

The effect of snow on space use of an alpine ungulate: recently fallen snow tells more than cumulative snow depth

“…During winter, mountain goats also tend to use areas with low cumulative snow depths often characterized by rocky windswept outcrops and ledges found in steep rugged terrain (Hebert and Turnbull 1977;Côté and Festa-Bianchet 2003;Poole et al 2009). Association with escape terrain is stronger during winter (Poole and Heard 2003;White 2006), but little is known about the effect of snow on this association. During winter, darkness may last for 15 h a day.…”

Use of global positioning system collars to monitor spatial-temporal movements of co-grazing goats and sheep and their common guardian dog

“…Janeau et al (2004) reported a success fix rate of 92.5% (39.1% 2D and 53.4% 3D) with red deer in deciduous forest in the leaf-off period (NovemberÁApril) and 86.5% (48.5% 2D and 38.04% 3D) in the leaf-on period (MayÁOctober). Poole and Heard (2003) reported a 76% success fix rate (15% 2D and 61% 3D) for mountain goats in mountainous terrain. Graves and Waller (2006) had a 72% success fix rate tracking bears in coniferous forest in mountainous terrain, even though the attempt-fix length of 3 min was considerably longer than the attempt-fix length of 70 s used in the present study.…”

“…Overall, the success fix rate was 91.7%, with 27.5% 2D fixes and 64.2% 3D fixes. The majority of previous studies involving GPS collars do not report fix interval, success fix rate or fix type (Cain et al 2005), and those studies that did used either stationary collars, which have a higher success rate than collars deployed on animals ), or collars deployed on wildlife (Poole and Heard 2003;Pepin et al 2004). Few reports concerning use of GPS collars on livestock included a success fix rate or fix type.…”

“…A number of studies have shown that topography (D'Eon et al 2002;Janeau et al 2004;Cain et al 2005) and vegetation cover (Di Orio et al 2003;Poole and Heard 2003;Frair et al 2004) can affect fix success rate and DOP. Frair et al (2004) reported a success fix rate of 94.9% in open field, 94.3% in deciduous forest in the leaf-off period and 87.5% in the leaf-on period, and Di Orio et al (2003) showed that canopy cover was inversely related to success fix rate and to percentage of 3D fixes.…”

Geophagic behavior in the mountain goat (Oreamnosamericanus): support for meeting metabolic demands

“…A variety of studies have documented geophagic behavior within this species, highlighting either individual movement patterns to specific lick sites or the nutrient composition of preferred licks (Jones and Hanson 1985;Poole and Heard 2003;Poole et al 2010;Rice 2010) or discussed its potential role in home-range limitations (Hebert 1965;Festa-Bianchet 1988). We aimed to understand what specific nutrients goats were seeking at lick sites.…”