Effects of mountain goat harvest on historic and contemporary populations
Rice CG and Gay D. 2010. Effects of mountain goat harvest on historic and contemporary populations. Northwestern Naturalist. 91:40-57
From the Abstract: "Understanding population dynamics and historical declines for Mountain Goats (Oreamnos americanus) is challenging due to sparse data. Speculations regarding the cause of population declines have included habitat change, predation, disease, parasites, recreation impacts, and excessive harvest. ... Using records of Mountain Goat harvest in selected areas of Washington State (USA), we modeled population trajectories for 7 areas with a stage-structured matrix model and compared these trjectories in recent population estimates. Our results supported the hypothesis that observed declines can be attributed primarily to the effects of harvest." Data from Olympic Peninsula mountain goat populations is included in the analysis.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Rice, Clifford; Gay, Don
- Units
- OLYM
- Keywords
- Harvest, Modeling, Mountain Goat (Oreamnos americanus), Population Dynamics