Olympic National Park’s controversial mountain goats will be counted during an aerial survey this week and the week of July 24-28.
The bigger questions — what to do about the goats and should they be killed? — remain unresolved.
This is the park’s fifth goat survey since 1990, with the last census showing between 259 and 320 of the snow-white animals in 2004.
That count was statistically no different from previous censuses in 1997, 1994 and 1990.
Biologists believe the Olympic’s mountain goat population has stabilized since 1990.
Most of the herds are located deep in the park’s craggy, remote interior where they are seen only rarely by backpackers.
This year’s survey — which will include adjacent Olympic National Forest — will not produce a total estimate of the population, said park spokeswoman Cat Hawkins Hoffman in a statement Friday.
While the goats will be counted, the survey isn’t an official total population census — rather it’s aimed at improving techniques for futre mountain goat counts, Hoffman said.
With their dagger-like black horns and immaculate white coats, the mountain goats are beautiful, elusive, loved and hated.
Conservation groups have pleaded for the goats’ removal for more than 20 years, and their numbers were reduced after a helicopter removal program in the 1980s.
The mountain goat is said to be a threat to endangered native plants in the park’s alpine areas.
