PORT ANGELES — Bob Boardman died as a hero, warning off other hikers as an aggressive mountain goat closed in on him, according to a witness.
With two pointed horns, the ram fatally gored Boardman in the thigh, then stood over the man as he lay bleeding, staring at people trying to help.
Boardman’s death on Saturday was the first human death caused by an animal in the 72-year-old history of Olympic National Park, park spokeswoman Barb Maynes said.
The ram was well-known for its aggressive behavior, including challenging hikers on the trails around the national park’s Klahhane Ridge, near where the attack occurred.
Margaret Bangs was hiking nearby when she spotted Boardman, a 63-year-old registered nurse.
The mountain goat — almost four feet tall and weighing almost 300 pounds — was chasing him, she said.
Boardman shouted to her and other hikers in the area to get away.
“He spent his last minutes putting himself between the goat and everyone else,” said Bangs, a Port Angeles private-practice physician.
In an e-mail, she added:
“Boardman was clearly and knowingly taking on risk to protect others.
“Please let people know that Boardman’s last act on this earth was to protect others even though he knew he was in grave danger.”
Park rangers later found the goat, observed blood on it and shot the animal.
A necropsy was conducted on the goat Sunday night by certified veterinary pathologists.
Park officials are awaiting test results of blood and tissue samples, which may take a couple weeks, Maynes said.
“We’re looking for anything to indicate any presence of diseases, which might shed light on the animal’s extremely strange and unusual behavior,” she said.
Rangers have been tracking the ram and other mountain goats for the past four years because they have followed people or approached hikers without backing down, said Maynes.
Rangers had shot nonlethal firecrackers and beanbag rounds at the animals to discourage them from approaching people, Maynes said.
“It has shown aggressive behavior; however, nothing led us to believe us it was appropriate to take the next level, of removal,” she said.
“This is highly unusual.
“There’s no record of anything similar in this park.
“It’s a tragedy. We are taking it extremely seriously and doing our best to learn as much as we can.”
Park officials had posted signs at trailheads warning hikers to be watchful of all mountain goats and to stay at least 100 feet from the animals.
Hikers are also warned not to urinate on or near the trail, because goats are attracted to the salt.
Funeral arrangements for Boardman are being handled by Harper-Ridgeview Funeral Chapel in Port Angeles,
Services have not yet been set.
Boardman was hiking on Saturday with his wife, Susan Chadd, and their friend, Pat Willits, on the Switchback Trail to Klahhane Ridge, about 17 miles south of Port Angeles.
The three had stopped for lunch at an overlook when the mountain goat began moving toward them shortly after 1 p.m.
When it began acting aggressively, Boardman urged Chadd and Willits to go on while he attempted to shoo away the animal and then leave himself.
The two heard him yell and ran back. No one — including Bangs, who had left to find a park ranger — saw the actual attack.
Other hikers radioed for help.
The mountain goat stood over Boardman as he lay motionless on the ground, bleeding.
“The mountain goat was terribly aggressive,” Jessica Baccus, who was hiking with her family.
“It wouldn’t move. It stared us down.”
She and her husband, Bill Baccus, a park scientist, tried to lure the goat away by pelting the animal with rocks, shouting at it and using a silver reflective blanket to distract it.
It finally moved away, and Jessica Baccus began to give Boardman CPR while her husband sought to keep the goat from coming closer again.
A Coast Guard helicopter lowered an emergency medical technician who tried to revive Boardman.
Boardman was airlifted him out of the park, landing at Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles at 2:47 p.m., where further resuscitation attempts were unsuccessful.
About 300 mountain goats now graze the park’s alpine meadows and roam its rocky peaks.
The animals are not native to the park.
They were introduced into the Olympic Mountains in the 1920s, before the park was established, so they could be pursued by hunters as game.
By the early 1980s they had multiplied to more than 1,000 animals.
The park began a two-year live capture program to remove hundreds of goats by helicopter because of the damage the animals wrecked on the park’s fragile alpine areas.
The animals were taken to the Cascade Range and other wilderness areas around the Northwest.
About 400 were moved before the agency concluded the remaining goats were living on higher slopes and too dangerous to capture.
In the mid-1990s, a draft report recommended the goats be shot from helicopters.
But the prospect triggered a petition drive among animal-rights supporters, and the proposal was dropped.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
