MOUNTAIN GOATS IN THE EAST KOOTENAY ... - BC Hydro

MOUNTAIN GOATS IN THE EAST KOOTENAY:
evaluation of habitat use, wintering strategies, and
potential impacts of high-elevation logging
Project update
Kim Poole 1 , Kari Stuart-Smith 2 , and Irene Teske 3
1 Aurora Wildlife Research, Nelson, BC
2 Tembec Inc., British Columbia Division, Cranbrook, BC
3 BC Min. Water, Land and Air Protection, Cranbrook, BC
March 2005

Background
East Kootenay goat populations declining?
Little known about habitat requirements
Little known about effects of low-elevation
logging, including use of mineral licks
Increases in backcountry recreational tenures
Species of local management concern
Winter range limited in size, and winter
survival may be limiting?

Objectives
Habitat use and selection in 2 areas
characterized by different snow conditions.
Determine the potential effects of forestry
development on low-elevation winter habitat
use.
Develop a model of winter habitat capability,
and compare the performance of this model
to the Sinclair et al. (2001) model.
Use radiocollared goats to quantify animal
sightability at different survey intensities.

Hypotheses
Goats wintering in areas of higher snowfall
with limited or no access to wind-swept
ridges will make greater use of low-elevation
habitat compared with animals wintering in
areas of lower snowfall.
In areas of deeper snow, goats will make
greater use of mature stands.
In winter, goats will select for old and mature
forested stands and against early seral
stands.

Study
areas

Study areas
St. Mary: Purcell Mts; deeper
snow, possibly higher
forest use by goats.
~150 goats in MU
White River: Rocky Mts;
shallower and drier snow;
high forestry impact.
~450 goats in MU
Goat densities higher
Wildfires

Methodology
Net gunning
30 GPS collars
ATS, store on board
6:15 hr locations
Jan 04 to Aug 05 life expectancy
Collars located every 1-2 months

Results to date
Limited to aerial telemetry
~88% GPS fix success
4 goats have died since initial collar
deployment in Jan 04: non-human related
4 collars re-deployed in Nov 04
Seasonal movements of up to 24 km in both
areas: 2X further in males
Pregnancy low: 5/13 (38%)
Diet?

Results to date
Impacts of low
elevation lick use
Goat 414F: 3 trips
to lick
3rd time unlucky

Results to date
Low elevation
winter habitat
Cutblock used
for feeding in
spring

Future plans
Continued telemetry monitoring
Sightability testing
Sept 04: half of cross-over testing completed at 2
survey intensities
Aug 05: Applied to HCTF to redo/complete
sightability testing
Remote blow-off and recover collars
Data analysis