Daily Fact: Are mountain goats really goats?

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Original photo by Vicki L. Mille/ Shutterstock Mountain goats aren't actually goats. When is a goat not a goat? When it can be spotted on a rail-thin rock crevasse at an altitude of 13,000 feet in the northwestern United States and Canada. That animal, while seemingly possessing the stubbornness attributed to the goats found at petting zoos, is actually the biologically distinct mountain goat, the lone extant species of the genus Oreamnos. While related to domestic and wild goats within the Bovidae family, mountain goats belong to the Rupicaprini tribe, a subdivision of "goat antelopes" that includes fellow rock-climbing creatures such as the goral and chamois. Anatomically, rupicaprids differ from other bovids by featuring short, dagger-like horns atop thinner, lighter skulls. Mountain goats have also developed specific features that would feel strange to their cousins in the petting zoo, namely the thick, double layer of fur and suction cup-like hooves that allow them to survive in cold, treacherous environments. Behavior-wise, male mountain goats are more deferential to females than their domestic cousins. They're also far less likely to engage in the sort of head-butting waged between playful kids and competing rivals among true goat herds, due to the potential for injury from those sharp horns. But lest you think these animals suffer from a courage deficiency, just think about how brave you'd be leaping between cliffs more than 2 miles above sea level.   You can tell a mountain goat's age by counting the rings on its horns. You can tell a mountain goat's age by counting the rings on its horns.

A group of mountain goats is called a __. A group of mountain goats is called a __. Numbers Don't Lie Life span, in years, of the typical wild mountain goat 9-12 Weight, in pounds, reached by the largest male mountain goats 300 Distance, in feet, a mountain goat can jump in a single bound 12 Number of studio albums released by the Mountain Goats 21 Mountain goats enjoy refreshing themselves with human urine. Most guides will advise keeping a safe distance from mountain goats, but sometimes the animals get a little more close and personal than we'd like. That's what started happening in Washington's Olympic National Park, where the ever-growing mountain goat population developed a taste for the salt in human urine and sweat. Although it can make for a fun campfire story or blog post, a brush with these normally elusive wild animals can be dangerous. Furthermore, the increasingly emboldened creatures have been found to be disrupting the ecosystem by trampling and gobbling up vegetation. In response, the National Park Service in 2018 began airlifting mountain goats to the nearby North Cascades National Park, a locale with plenty of the naturally occurring mineral deposits needed to supplement their diets, and fewer of the freely urinating hikers just waiting to blog about their close encounters with intruding wildlife.   You might also like 6 Fun Facts About Sloths

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