Funded Projects

In 2022, Luke Vander Vennen with the Government of British Columbia applied for an RMGA Science and Conservation grant. Luke proposed to fill significant mountain goat knowledge gaps by deploying 15 GPS collars into several study areas across the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, Canada for three winter seasons. These collars will provide information on winter habitat selection, critical kidding areas, mortality rates, and important mineral lick locations.

11 collars have been previously deployed in nearby areas, so this project provides an excellent opportunity to partner with existing projects and develop a spatially extensive dataset through the deployment of additional collars across the region. These data will provide critical insights into mountain goat movement patterns, habitat selection, and survival rates. 

RMGA members can access the full report. 

Photo credit: Darryn Epp Photography

In 2022, Forest Hayes applied for an RMGA Science and Conservation grant. Unabated global warming threatens to shift ecosystem ranges faster than species can adapt. This risk is especially pronounced for cold-adapted species, such as mountain goats, which experience strong climatic limitations to their geographic range and dispersal. Hayes’ seeks to understand the effects of local climate on the fine-scale behavior of mountain goats and how this may affect future range-wide habitat suitability. This research will inform understanding of behavioral response to local climate and the range of variability in response throughout the southern portion of the range of mountain goats.

RMGA members can access the full report.

In 2022, Jami Belt applied for an RMGA Science and Conservation grant for a research project in Glacier National Park. The park needs to understand whether goats in GNP are a single population or subdivided into smaller subpopulations to provide context on the significance of this apparent decline. Information is currently needed to guide proposed infrastructure and regulations that are currently under consideration. Goats are in the park's Foundation documents, and studying goats from ecological and human interaction perspectives is a park goal.

RMGA members can access the full report.

Sandra  Hamel's (Laval Uinversity) monitoring project marked animals within the  only mountain goat population that has been intensely studied for over  30 years, in Caw Ridge, Alberta. The goal is to increase knowledge on  population demography and the factors that affect the variation in  population dynamics and individual traits. This information is used to  recommend management and conservation options.

Full report available to RMGA members.

In 2022, Kiana Young with Trent University applied for an RMGA Science and Conservation grant to provide compensation for the time needed to finish analysing the study results and produce the final manuscript.

The goal of this study is to characterize the genetic population structure and demographic history of mountain goats in Alaska. Over the past years, we have collected over ~2000 samples from mountain goats across their range in Alaska. These samples have been extracted and genotyped at 14 polymorphic loci. For example, Baranof Island in Southeast Alaska has been of interest to researchers and land managers due to previous evidence that an endemic population of mountain goats existed on the island before the introduction in the 1920s. The addition of samples from this analysis could help further highlight how mountain goats on Baranof Island are related to mainland mountain goats.

RMGA members can access the full report.

Interactions between American pikas and mountain goats

In  2021, Mallory Lambert applied for a RMGA Science and Conservation  grant. Lambert’s project intends to study the ecological and behavioural  interactions between mountain goats and American pikas; they are  sympatric across most of their overlapping distributions, but  historically their interactions have not
been  studied. Lambert hopes to provide insight to improve success rates of  mountain goat transplants while minimizing negative impacts on pikas.

Full report available to RMGA members.

In 2021, Daniel Guertin applied for an RMGA Science and Conservation grant. Guertin’s project involved organizing a ground-based citizen science survey of moutnains in the Cheam GMU with a concurrent aerial inventory. The results of both surveys would be compared. If the surveys came back with similar results, then this project would act to validate citizen science surveys as cost-effective alternatives or augmentation to monitor goat populations in the region and province.

In  2021, Sandra Hamel applied for an RMGA Science and Conservation grant.  Her proposed project included monitoring marked animals within the only  mountain goat population that has been intensely studied for over 30  years, in Caw Ridge. The goal was to increase knowledge on population  demography and the factors that affect the variation in population  dynamics and individual traits. They can use this new information to  recommend management and conservation options.

Full report available to RMGA members.

Laura  Balyx previously applied for an RMGA Science and Conservation grant to  help fund the research for her thesis project. Balyx’s project focused  on understanding the response of mountain goats to these disturbances  for conserving future populations and managing anthropogenic disturbance  in protected areas. Her project was a unique opportunity to study  mountain goats in a protected area (Cathedral Provincial Park (CPP),  British Columbia, Canada) where the herd interacts with both people and  helicopters.

The full thesis can be read here.

The RMGA Conservation Fund generously provided funding to support  the translocation efforts of mountain goats from the Olympic Peninsula  to their native Cascade mountain range. As a result of this support, Dr.  Katie Haman, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Wildlife  Veterinarian, was able to participate in these captures, providing much  needed veterinary support to ensure the humane capture, treatment and  health assessment of translocated goats.

RMGA conservation dollars were utilized at the 2019 capture to  purchase everything from GPS collars for Washington Department of Game  & Fish, to an additional veterinarian to help process animals, as  well as funding the attendance of biologists Tom Stevenson and Kevin  White to further develop their ultrasound body condition measuring  techniques.

Unfortunately, a reality of drugging and relocating wild animals is that not 100% of them survive. What is to become of these expired animals? The RMGA recently funded for Conservation Committee member, Kevin White of Alaska Department of Fish and Game, to travel to Washington with his colleagues Tom and Kathleen Stephenson (California Department of Fish and Wildlife) and Yasaman Shakeri (Alaska Department of Fish and Game) to make sure these valuable specimens would contribute to important scientific studies and did not go to waste.