Mountain Goat Survey Ragged Range area
The contents of this paper are the sole responsibility of the authori We conducted an aerial survey for mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus) in the Ragged Range area of the southern Mackenzie Mountains from 22-24 August 2011. The area surveyed covered ca. 1,700 km 2 and was bounded by 62 o 16’N and 6...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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2011
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.383.5435 http://www.arlis.org/docs/vol1/E/794523736.pdf |
| Summary: | The contents of this paper are the sole responsibility of the authori We conducted an aerial survey for mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus) in the Ragged Range area of the southern Mackenzie Mountains from 22-24 August 2011. The area surveyed covered ca. 1,700 km 2 and was bounded by 62 o 16’N and 61 o 45’N to the north and south and 127 o 20’W and 128 o 20’W to the east and west. We classified goats into four sex/age classes: kids, yearlings, nannies, and billies; some goats were not classified, they were not young of the year. We used a global positioning system (GPS) to track the survey flight paths and record the locations of all wildlife seen. We observed 278 mountain goats, 124 billies, 80 nannies, 50 kids and 6 yearlings; 18 goats were unclassified. We estimated 62.5 kids/100 nannies, 155 billies/100 nannies, and 18percent kids. Other wildlife observed during the survey included 62 Dall’s sheep (Ovis dalli), five northern mountain caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou), two moose (Alces alces gigas), two beavers (Castor canadensis), two trumpeter swans (Cygnus buccinator), one wolverine (Gulo gulo), and one golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos). The survey results provide increasing evidence that the number of mountain goats inhabiting the southern Mackenzie Mountains is far greater than that estimated by Veitch et al. (2002).ii |
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