What Animals Have Been Introduced To Colorado
Title photograph past Robson Hatsukami Morgan.
Is that good or bad? It depends on your perspective, but there is a toll to native constitute and animate being communities
Breathtaking photos have led us to associate mountain goats with talus slopes and high ridges in the mountains of Colorado, and then it may come every bit a surprise that mountain goats are non native, just were first introduced in 1947. From fossils in Porcupine Cave in South Park, we know that Harrington's mountain caprine animal,Oreamnos harringtoni, lived in Colorado at least 800,0000 years agone, but met its demise in the Megafaunal Extinction 11,000 years agone.
A mountain goat walks amidst the trees. Photo by Jeff Mitton.
Mountain goats,Oreamnos americanus, are native to Alaska, the Canadian Rockies, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. They were showtime introduced to Colorado from Montana in 1947 and the final introduction was in 1972. They were introduced to Mountain Evans, the Needle Mountains, the Ragged Mountains, the Gore Range and Sawatch Range. From those sites, they have spread to the San Juan Mountains, the Elk and Westward Elk Mountains, the Cherry-red Mountains, the Mosquito Range, the Forepart Range and Thousand Mesa.
They were beginning seen in Rocky Mountain National Park in 1979, and were probably established past 1995. A baton goat was seen and photographed on Niwot Ridge in 2006. Managers introduced only 55 to 60 mount goats, merely today thousands live in the mountains of Colorado.
In 1993, at the request of the International Order of Mountain Goats, the Colorado Wild animals Commission declared the mountain goat to be a native species in Colorado. From the perspective of a professional biologist, this is inappropriate. The designation "native" should be based on facts of geographic distribution—it is neither a political nor a courtesy appointment.
Is the spread of this non-native beyond the mountains of Colorado a positive or a negative evolution? Like many changes, the outcome is a matter of perspective.
Every bit mountain caprine animal numbers have grown, bighorn sheep numbers have declined.
Hunters are delighted. They have an elusive large game animal high in the mountains, and in 2018, licenses were issued to 203 hunters and 174 goats were taken. In addition, people who bask watching wildlife are thrilled to see mount goats in scenic and wild mountains.
Naturalists and biologists who follow the management of bighorn sheep are troubled by the introduction of a large herbivore with substantial overlap in utilize of habitat and nutrient. As mountain goat numbers have grown, bighorn sheep numbers have declined. Observations of interactions signal that goats are often dominant to bighorn sheep and are able to displace them.
Equally a biologist, I am generally wary of introductions, for although some have been beneficial, many take been negative and some take been disastrous: think nigh tamarisk, wheatgrass, white pino blister rust and emerald ash borers.
Two protected areas immediately come up to listen when I think of mountain caprine animal introductions: first, Summit Lake, at 12,800 feet on Mount Evans, the commencement Natural National Landmark in Colorado and secondly, the Mount Peale Inquiry Natural Area, managed by the National Forest Service in the La Sal Mountains of Utah. CU'southward Professor Neb Weber led the movement to set aside the 160 acres around Summit Lake because it is a botanical treasure, a local example of an Arctic Tundra habitat, complete with permafrost and numerous species rare exterior of the Chill.
Several years ago, he sounded the alarm that too many goats and people were threatening the designated Landmark. In Utah, the Division of Wildlife introduces mount goats to the La Sal Mountains over the objections of the Forest Service, which manages 2,380 acres of tall zone as the Mount Peale Research Natural Area. Just a few years later, the Forest Service reported that goats were damaging the vegetation by overgrazing and trampling some areas to bare ground. Common sense dictates that y'all should not let mountain goats into areas designated as treasured tall botanical sites.
The Olympic National Park in Washington has decided to remove all of the mountain goats in the park. They plan to move about half to the Northern Cascades and kill the residue. What does Olympic National Park know that Colorado does not know?
The Colorado Division of Wildlife and the Utah Division of Wildlife introduced mountain goats to amend hunting opportunities and to provide a revenue stream from hunting licenses ($300 for residents, $2,200 for out of state). But it falls upon other agencies, such as the Forest Service, to manage institute communities. It is clear, from the introduction to the La Sal Mountains, that these agencies exercise not have their goals aligned. Nosotros need to manage the alpine areas in Colorado not solely for hunters, merely also to maintain native plant and animate being communities, to really protect wilderness areas.
Source: https://www.colorado.edu/asmagazine/2019/12/06/introduced-mountain-goats-have-colonized-much-land-above-trees
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