A sickly mountain goat put down by wildlife trooper Ricky Merritt this week will be sent for a necropsy.
Assistant area wildlife biologist Anthony Crupi said the animal was weak and disoriented, with crusty scabs near its nose and mouth when it was put down near 7.5 Mile Haines Highway.
“If you saw the way she looked, it’s bad,” Crupi said. “She smelled like she’d been dead for weaks.” The nanny goat weighed 95 pounds, or about half the weight of a healthy, mature nanny, he said. “It definitely had some sort of viral infection on its nose, mouth and eye.”
A form of eczema contagious to humans called orf is present in some goat populations in Southeast, he said. Disorientation and scabbing are two symptoms of the disease, he said.
Crupi said it’s not unusual for some healthy goats to come down to very low elevations during the winter.
Fish and Game is studying goats in upper Lynn Canal. Currently there’s not enough information to gauge the condition of the local population, he said.