Snowy mountain goats are fearless rock conquerors. Snow mountain goats (Latin Oreamnos americanus) belong to the heavy type, the largest individuals reach 95-105 cm at the withers, and weigh more than 120 kg. But the horns of these goats are small – only 21-30 cm. The snowy mountain goat was found in western North America. The main range in the USA is the mountain ranges of the states of Idaho, Montana and southeastern Alaska, in Canada — the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, and the southern Yukon territory. The species has also been settled on the Olympic Peninsula, as far as the center of Alaska, as well as in Nevada, Colorado and Wyoming. The snowy mountain goat is a mountain animal that lives in hard—to-reach places, above the forest border, and is often found in summer at altitudes even above 3,000 meters above sea level. It feeds on grasses and lichens, and tolerates frosts up to -40 ° C. It keeps small herds. Although mountain goats were never domesticated or used for wool production, the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast in pre-Columbian times used their wool in weaving, collecting the spring shedding wool left by wild goats. Surprisingly, the snow goat can change the color of its horns. The appendages cannot be called large — they differ little from the horns of an ordinary domestic goat: smooth, small, slightly curved. But they have one special feature. If it's warm outside, then the horns of the snow goat are gray. And as soon as winter comes, they change color to black. Biologists estimate that the total number of snowy mountain goats currently ranges from 80,000 to 119,000 mature individuals. The view is protected. Despite its relative small population, the threat of extinction due to the inaccessibility of habitat areas is low.
Post: 11 January 02:34
