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Show Wildlife Services Trap Mountain Goats For Restocking Purposes During the last nine years 96 mountain goats have been live-trapped live-trapped in Montana and most of them have been used to restock re-stock old game ranges within the state. In 1949, 25 mountain goats were captured for restocking restock-ing purposes through a cooperative coop-erative arrangement between the Montana Fish and Game department de-partment and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior Secretary Oscar L. Chapman announced recently. In a report to the secretary. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Di-rector Albert M. Day stated that the project is a typical example ex-ample of restocking of big game habitat by the transfer of animals an-imals from another area work which has been made possible by the Pittman-Robertson Fed- eral Aid to Wildlife program. This phase of Federal Aid work has been highly popular with sportsmen who hope to see unused un-used game, ranges become productive. pro-ductive. Larger stocks of animals ani-mals for hunting would thus become available. Because mountain goats live in small, scattered groups, live-trapping live-trapping and restocking is a slow process. Several traps in i northwestern Montana were operated op-erated in May, June and July, 1949. These traps were baited with salt and browse. Of the 25 goats trapped during the season, six were whiskered old billies past their prime and were released. Of the remainder, remaind-er, 13 were successfully transplanted, trans-planted, while six others died from unseasonable heat and fright. Losses normally are low. The captured goats were rendered rend-ered harmless to each other and to their handlers by having a short piece of garden hose looped and cemented over their two stilletto sharp horns. The goats were then blindfolded and their feet tied for transportation out of the mountains 7 miles in a rubber boat shooting the rapids enroute. Once out of the mountains, the goats were loaded load-ed in a Stinson plane and flown to the new range area. Besides the general wildlife restocking project in Montana which is also concerned with live-trapping and transplanting of deer and antelope other states, such as Oregon and Colorado, Colo-rado, and Alaska have used P-R Federal Aid funds to capture and restock mountain goats. |
