Concerned over aggressive behavior and environmental impacts of hundreds of salt-sucking mountain goats, Olympic National Park officials are considering relocating some and killing others.
A park survey in 2016 estimated that 625 mountain goats live in the park. Populations have risen about 8 percent each year on average since 2004, according to the impact statement.
In 2010, a mountain goat known to be troublesome gored and killed a 63-year-old man, then stood over his body and stared other hikers down, according to a witness.
The killing reinvigorated park discussions about how to manage mountain goats. The park service believes mountain goats are not native to the Olympic Peninsula.
Park officials in the 1980s removed hundreds of goats by helicopter and considered eradicating the goat population by shooting mountain goats in the 1990s, before public outcry from animal-rights supporters tabled that idea.
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