Blessed with climbing skills to impress the most intrepid mountaineer,
these agile, sure-footed creatures deserve to be held on a pedestal as
lofty as the alpine crags on which they appear. Practically the only
negative thing you could say about the mountain goat is that it isn’t
– a goat that is.
They share a propensity for scrambling up and balancing on
hair-raisingly high objects like rocky cliffs, out of reach of most
potential predators. They do so with little apparent sense of danger –
but do you worry about getting hit by a car every time you cross your
local street?
Mountain goats are well adapted to clambering up precipitous slopes to
reach vegetation due to the nature of their cloven hooves. They have
two widely spaced toes that provide stable balance, with rough pads on
the bottom to stop them from slipping, just like any good climbing
shoe.
These powerful, barrel-chested beasts are also supremely nimble, able
to jump almost 12 feet in a single leap. They’re hard as nails too –
boasting long, pointed black horns – and both males and females behave
aggressively towards one another, billies in face-offs during breeding
season, and nannies to protect their turf in conflicts that sometimes
turn into the mountain goat equivalent of mass brawls.
With their double-layered coats – a dense, woolly undercoat covered by
an outer layer of longer hair, better than any ski jacket – mountain
goats are well insulated against freezing temperatures and the bitter
mountain winds they must face. Their brilliant white colour also acts
as good camouflage on the snowy peaks, though the high altitudes they
inhabit is itself a safeguard against most natural predators.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment