By Jessica Edwards

Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Kevin White is monitoring the movements and habitat use of 91 eastern Lynn Canal mountain goats – and one black bear.

White, who is conducting the four-year goat study, said he lost the signal of a radio collar around the neck of a nanny who died last winter, only to pick the signal up later in a different location.

When the snow melted, he hiked to the coordinates where the nanny had died, but found nothing. "I couldn’t find the collar or get a signal. There were no remains of the goat."

Later this fall, he heard the signal coming from an alpine ridge while he was conducting an aerial survey. The only animal on the bench was a black bear. Around its neck was the nanny’s collar.

"It might have put its head through the collar as it was scavenging the goat," said White. He said although tracking the bear wasn’t part of the goat project, it had been interesting to follow the bear’s extensive movements through the seasons.

The mountain goat study is the largest project of its kind in more than a decade. It was started in 2005 in order to learn more about mountain goat habitat use, reproduction, and migration patterns from Berner’s Bay north to Mount Villard, across from Taiya Point.

The Department of Fish and Game initiated the study in order to better understand and possibly mitigate the effects of industrial developments, including the Juneau road project and the Kensington gold mine, on goat habitat use and population along the eastern side of the Lynn Canal.

The $750,000 study is funded primarily by the Alaska Department of Transportation. Kensington mine company Coeur Alaska contributed 25 percent.

According to this year’s annual progress report, conclusions about the impact of development at the mine will not be drawn until 2009, when all the data for the project have been gathered.

"At this stage we are not far enough along to be able to provide any conclusions about the effects of mine related activities on mountain goats," White said.

He also said the delay of the Juneau road project made it "unlikely that we’ll have the opportunity to monitor the effects of road construction (on mountain goats), at least under the current project."

But the study will develop a baseline of information about goat populations and behavior in the corridor of the proposed access road.

Capturing and fitting goats with radio collars that transmit a VHF signal and GPS coordinates allowed White and his team to track a portion of population. Aerial surveys collated with data collected from the collars is used to estimate the ratio of adult animals to kids, population density, the survival rate of the animals, and patterns of migration in summer and winter.

About 600 animals had been observed in the study area, accounting for an estimated 40 to 65 percent of the population. White said the goat population was "conservatively" between 800-1,000 animals, with the highest concentrations in the south end of the study area east of Berners Bay.

White said this year’s data confirmed that, because of high snowfall in coastal areas, goats migrate to lower elevations to find forage during the winter, sometimes even to sea level.

In a story on this study last year, White said this coastal "elevational migration" pattern meant goats would likely be on or near the road during the winter months.

Mountain goats in interior environments, where it is colder, drier and windier, can find forage on ridge tops and tend to winter at high elevations, he said.

Last year’s heavy snows caused mountain goats living on the east side of Lynn Canal to winter an average of 500 feet lower than normal.

White said it also resulted in higher than average mortality rates for both males and females.

"Last winter was a very extreme year; it was the highest snowfall on record. Mortality rates were substantially higher—10 percent higher for females and 25 percent higher for males."

White is currently working on a report describing the ways in which males and females make different use of environmental resources.

He said that while both sexes increase their energy resources in the fall, with males gaining as much as a half pound a day from August to October, females usually begin the winter in better physical condition.

"The survival of males is lower because of different life history strategies," White said. "Females bear and care for young, and try to build energy reserves to have the body condition for kidding. Males increase their body condition to secure breeding opportunities."

The majority of goat deaths occur in late winter, between February and May.

For mountain goats, the rut is in November and kidding occurs in the spring. Males compete with one another for females in the fall, often depleting their winter energy resources. Females, on the other hand, conserve energy for the spring in order to give birth to young.