Wildlife viewing in the Canadian Rockies
Not as great as advertised, at least not for us
You’ll find more than half of the world's population of mountain goats in the Canadian Rockies, especially on the British Columbia side. But because of its lofty, remote haunts, it is the least familiar of ungulates or hoofed mammals in Canada.
In fact, we would have missed the nanny and her kid in the top photo had we not seen the mountain goat sign on the highway running along the Kootenay River as we headed back to camp near Lake Louise in Alberta from a picnic lunch overlooking Radium Hot Springs, B.C.
The mountain goat is an even-toed, hoofed mammal of the cattle family derived during the ice ages from the primitive Asiatic goat-antelopes. It entered North America during the last ice age from Siberia, according to Canadian Encyclopedia. It is not a true goat but belongs to a tribe ancestral to sheep and goats. The mountain goat, largest and most cold-hardy species of its tribe, is widely distributed in the Canadian western mountains below the Arctic circle. Adapted to life on steep cliffs where footholds are often covered by snow or ice, it is a slow, methodical climber who prefers to move during daylight when there is good visibility. It may select resting spots for the night already in the afternoon (which is likely what our nanny and kid did).
Nannies can be very competitive and protective of their space and food sources. They fight with one another for dominance in conflicts that can ultimately include all the nannies in the herd. In these battles, nannies circle each other with their heads lowered, displaying their horns. These conflicts can occasionally lead to injury or death, but are usually harmless.
In regions below the tree line, nannies use their fighting abilities to protect themselves and their offspring from predators. Predators, including wolves, wolverines, lynxes and bears, attack goats of most ages given the opportunity. The cougar, or mountain lion, is perhaps the primary predator, being powerful enough to overwhelm the largest adults and uniquely nimble enough to navigate the rocky ecosystem of the goats. Nannies have even been observed trying to dominate the more passive, but often heavier bighorn sheep that share some of their territory. In 2021, a mountain goat gored a grizzly bear to death in Yoho National Park.
Mountain goats introduced in the 1920s into Washington’s Olympic Mountains were in time found to be a nuisance there, in particular while seeking human urine and sweat for its salt content, the park lacking natural salt licks, and even aggressively approaching human visitors. One such goat killed a hiker in 2010. Officials finally chose to eradicate them from the Olympic Peninsula, removing hundreds, mostly by capturing them and relocating them to the Cascade Mountains.
Although wildlife viewing is touted as one of the chief attractions of the Canadian Rockies, we did not find it so.
The two mountain goats, and scores of chipmunks and golden-mantled ground squirrels, were all that we saw during our two weeks in Banff and Jasper National Park. Click here to see what we missed.
We did encounter a fair bit of birdlife, though, especially American Crows and Common Ravens and the ubiquitous Black-billed Magpie. Some 20 species are known worldwide, however, only the black-billed magpie (Pica hudsonia) is found in Canada.
Both crows and ravens are members of the corvus genus in the Corvidae family, a family known for its intelligence. Some researchers believe that crows and ravens are the smartest of all animals, next to humans. They use tools, can reason and problem solve and can recognize human faces.
But typing on a computer keyboard is challenging, so they asked me to write this piece about them.
TRIP DATA
Day 24: 5,127 km from home
Next stop: Maybe a closer look at Lake Louise, possibly a visit to Moraine Lake, two icons of Banff National Park.