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posted by martyb on Tuesday July 25 2017, @08:49PM   Printer-friendly
from the on-the-'horns'-of-a-dilemma dept.

Olympic National Park has released a mountain goat management plan:

The mountain goats at Olympic National Park in Washington have worn out their their welcome and park officials are moving ahead with plans to get rid of them. On Monday the National Park Service released a mountain goat management plan, laying out three methods of dealing with the population, which park officials say not only is damaging the environment but is dangerous to people.

One method is killing the animals with shotguns or high-powered rifles. The other is relocating them. And the last option is a combination of the two. That is the preferred plan but would likely take years, said Louise Johnson, the park's chief of resources management.

First helicopters would capture the goats in drop nets. Next a crew would tranquilize the animals, putting them in slings under the helicopter, which would carry them to a staging area. From there, they would be placed in trucks and driven hours to their natural habitat in the North Cascade Mountains. Some of the goats — roughly half — Johnson estimates, would have to be killed because crews wouldn't be able to access them in remote, rugged terrain.

There are an estimated 600 mountain goats in the park today and the population is growing by about 8 percent a year, Johnson said.


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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by aristarchus on Tuesday July 25 2017, @11:05PM (27 children)

    by aristarchus (2645) on Tuesday July 25 2017, @11:05PM (#544346) Journal

    One method is killing the animals with shotguns or high-powered rifles. The other is relocating them. And the last option is a combination of the two.

    Does this mean we shoot them with both shotguns and rifles, or that we shoot them and then re-locate them, or alternatively re-locate them and then shoot them, with either shotguns or rifle? Or some combination of more than one of these options?

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Tuesday July 25 2017, @11:10PM (19 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday July 25 2017, @11:10PM (#544349)

    Didn't the republicans (try to) allow wolf hunting again?
    Seems to me that if you have too many wolves in one place, and too many goats in another, you can solve your problems with a truck.

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by JNCF on Tuesday July 25 2017, @11:33PM (15 children)

      by JNCF (4317) on Tuesday July 25 2017, @11:33PM (#544357) Journal

      You city dwellers keep thinking goats are cute, but we killed them for a damn good reason. They cause harm, both directly to humans and indirectly by killing our livestock.
      We even burned all the forest off of Mount Monadnock just to wipe out a goat herd. The mountain is still bald 2 centuries later.
      At this point, reintroducing the goat is like introducing an invasive species. One might as well release lions and tigers and hippos and tse-tse flies and bot flies and the guinea worm. Heck, go for smallpox too!
      People who support goats are a special kind of traitor. It's not really against a country. It's against humanity itself. We tamed the wilderness so we could live safely, and some people want to undo that.

      • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday July 25 2017, @11:38PM (1 child)

        by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday July 25 2017, @11:38PM (#544359)

        Googling "You city dwellers keep thinking" returns exactly 4 SN hits ... (I remembered wolves, mosquitoes and now goats)
        Is that an original SN colloquialism, or did I miss the original source?

      • (Score: 2, Informative) by Arik on Wednesday July 26 2017, @01:34AM (8 children)

        by Arik (4543) on Wednesday July 26 2017, @01:34AM (#544413) Journal
        An adult billy goat in rut with full natural horns is a bona-fide walking menace to any other species native to north america. Anyone that doubts it has certainly never had to beat one off mano a mano. Even the grizzlies suddenly discover something very interesting in the other direction - not on sight but well before that, at merely a whiff of that unholy smell.

        --
        If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
        • (Score: 4, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday July 26 2017, @02:29AM (6 children)

          by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Wednesday July 26 2017, @02:29AM (#544429) Journal

          Just a suggestion: let the goat get it out of its system with a lady goat instead of interfering with it and beating it off? "Animal husbandry" does not mean what you think it means.

          --
          I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
          • (Score: 1) by Arik on Wednesday July 26 2017, @02:59AM (5 children)

            by Arik (4543) on Wednesday July 26 2017, @02:59AM (#544439) Journal
            You see that's how it's supposed to go, of course. But sometimes it goes wrong. The billy is short sighted and as often as not wanders off in the opposite direction to the lady goats. The first thing it finds of roughly the right shape and size, whether it's a car or a dog or your neighbors kid, IS the lady goat in his mind at this point.
            --
            If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
            • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday July 26 2017, @07:05AM (2 children)

              by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday July 26 2017, @07:05AM (#544521)

              According to credible sources, you may recover after 108 years.

              • (Score: 1) by Arik on Wednesday July 26 2017, @06:31PM (1 child)

                by Arik (4543) on Wednesday July 26 2017, @06:31PM (#544779) Journal
                Recover from what?
                --
                If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
                • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday July 26 2017, @06:46PM

                  by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday July 26 2017, @06:46PM (#544795)

                  A billy goat cursing you.
                  It was only 71 years, but fans will recognize the 108 number easier.
                  /Chicago jokes [wikipedia.org]

            • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday July 26 2017, @05:42PM (1 child)

              by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday July 26 2017, @05:42PM (#544757)

              The first thing it finds of roughly the right shape and size, whether it's a car or a dog or your neighbors kid, IS the lady goat in his mind at this point.

              I fail to see the problem here, or why any action is needed to change this. Let the dogs and the neighbor kids deal with this problem on their own. Those kids are a pain in the ass anyway, and the stupid dogs are constantly barking and disturbing the peace.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 26 2017, @06:29PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 26 2017, @06:29PM (#544778)

                Those kids are a pain in the ass anyway

                I see what you did there

        • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 26 2017, @06:38PM

          by DeathMonkey (1380) on Wednesday July 26 2017, @06:38PM (#544785) Journal

          An adult billy goat in rut with full natural horns is a bona-fide walking menace to any other species native to north america.

          Yep, from the article:

          The park has always dealt with the goats on a case by case basis, Johnson said, but it wasn't until 2010 when they got serious about the problem.

          "We had a fatality due to a mountain goat basically goring a hiker," Johnson said.

      • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday July 26 2017, @04:02PM (3 children)

        by tangomargarine (667) on Wednesday July 26 2017, @04:02PM (#544697)

        We even burned all the forest off of Mount Monadnock just to wipe out a goat herd. The mountain is still bald 2 centuries later.

        Are you sure? Wikipedia has this to say about it:

        It remains clear largely because of fires set by early settlers. The first major fire, set in 1800 to clear the lower slopes for pasture, swept through the stands of virgin red spruce on the summit and flanks of the mountain. Between 1810 and 1820, local farmers, who believed that wolves were denning in the blowdowns, set fire to the mountain again. The conflagration raged for weeks, destroying the topsoil and denuding the mountain above 2,000 feet (610 m).[5]

        --
        "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 26 2017, @04:22PM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 26 2017, @04:22PM (#544706)

          The post I made was originally about wolves:

          https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=15792&cid=409003 [soylentnews.org]

          It's become something of a meme around here now, with various animals in place of wolves: mosquitoes, mountain goats, whales...

          Seriously, whales????

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 26 2017, @04:49PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 26 2017, @04:49PM (#544733)

            An adult whale in rut with full natural horns is a bona-fide walking menace to any other species native to north america. Anyone that doubts it has certainly never had to give one a reach-around mano a mano. Even the grizzlies suddenly discover something very interesting in the other direction - not on sight but well before that, at merely a whiff of that exhilarating smegma scent. Me... I live for it, and some day I hope to die from it.

            --
            Friends dont let friend[s] enable teletype

          • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday July 26 2017, @06:24PM

            by tangomargarine (667) on Wednesday July 26 2017, @06:24PM (#544775)

            I think this site's audience isn't big enough for a meme of this complexity.

            It's become something of a meme around here now

            If you say so. I come here basically daily and this is the first time I've run across it.

            --
            "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Arik on Wednesday July 26 2017, @01:26AM (2 children)

      by Arik (4543) on Wednesday July 26 2017, @01:26AM (#544409) Journal
      "Seems to me that if you have too many wolves in one place, and too many goats in another, you can solve your problems with a truck."

      Sir, it's plainly apparent that you have never attempted to load a truck with either sort of critter.

      --
      If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
      • (Score: 2) by lx on Wednesday July 26 2017, @01:58PM

        by lx (1915) on Wednesday July 26 2017, @01:58PM (#544636)

        Goats and wolves? You need a boat, and a cabbage.

      • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday July 28 2017, @12:33AM

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday July 28 2017, @12:33AM (#545539) Journal

        I will note that he didn't mention loading the truck. I figured he was going to use a truck to run over goats and wolves. That little task may prove to be harder than he thought.

  • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday July 25 2017, @11:56PM (3 children)

    by mhajicek (51) on Tuesday July 25 2017, @11:56PM (#544367)

    The shotgun part is self explanatory. For rifles, they specify "high-powered", which would mean more powerful than standard, MBR calibers like the .308, so .338 Lapua Magnum at the very least. Perhaps these goats have body armor? But then why would a shotgun work?

    --
    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
    • (Score: 4, Informative) by frojack on Wednesday July 26 2017, @01:17AM

      by frojack (1554) on Wednesday July 26 2017, @01:17AM (#544406) Journal

      They really mean flat shooting because of the range needed. Hard to get near a wily goat. You don't really need a big caliber.
      264, 270, 280, and 7mm Remington Magnum are common goat guns in Alaska. Relatively small bullets with a big charge of powder behind for go fast go far.

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Wednesday July 26 2017, @01:58AM (1 child)

      by driverless (4770) on Wednesday July 26 2017, @01:58AM (#544421)

      The shotgun part is self explanatory. For rifles, they specify "high-powered"

      They're actually referring to the use of a mountain howitzer [buckstix.com] for hunting.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 26 2017, @04:45AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 26 2017, @04:45AM (#544472)

        Shit... Just drop a nuke there.

  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday July 26 2017, @12:13AM (2 children)

    by frojack (1554) on Wednesday July 26 2017, @12:13AM (#544375) Journal

    Shotguns (with 00 Buck) work for exactly One Goat. From then on you would never get in range.
    You need a pretty flat shooting rifle and a good set of lungs and legs to take Goats.

    On the other hand, if they just want to kill them off, and leave them in the field, choppers with a door gunner would do. (And I wouldn't put it past them to do it that way).

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 26 2017, @02:56AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 26 2017, @02:56AM (#544437)

      Heli door gunner, eh? Just like 'Nam, then, and we go with the shot 'em and then re-locate? I liked the hunting solution better, because humans should always eat what they kill, especially in war, just like in 'Nam.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 26 2017, @05:02AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 26 2017, @05:02AM (#544478)

      Oh yeah flamethrowers and harpoon guns would be so much better. Of course to be sure one should nuke it from the orbit.