ABLA/CLUN habitat type. One of these marked sheep was also 

 observed on Mount Vernon on May 25, 19 77. Bighorn sheep 

 have not been observed on the study area since that date. 



Local residents and sportsmen reported observing big- 

 horn sheep on Mount Vernon in the fall of 1975. One of the 

 neck-banded sheep observed by the investigator was also ob- 

 served by E. Vance (pers. comm. ) on the North Fork of the 

 Bull River on January 1, 19 76, and by G. Brown (pers. comm.) 

 on Ibex Peak on May 29, 19 76. 



Mountain Goat 



In Montana 12 native and 4 introduced mountain goat 

 herds have been recognized (Casebeer et al. 1950) . There 

 have been a number of other relatively recent introductions. 

 The West Cabinet Mountains support a native herd whose 

 approximate range extends from Drift Creek on the north to 

 the West Fork of Blue Creek on the south and from the east 

 face of Mount Vernon west to Scotchman Peak No. 2 in Idaho 

 (Figure 11) . 



Mountain goat observations and sign on the study area 

 tended to be clumped in four concentration areas. The gen- 

 eral locations of each concentration area (which have been 

 named Mount Vernon-Spar Peak, Savage Mountain, Sawtooth 

 Mountain and Ross Point) are illustrated in Figure 12. Some 

 observations and sign were located outside the concentration 

 areas suggesting that travel occurs between outlined areas. 

 Additional field investigations will be necessary to deter- 

 mine the degree to which mountain goats travel between these 

 areas and whether the concentration area boundaries should 

 be altered. 



Mountain goat observations and sign information col- 

 lected from April 19 77 through July 19 78 are presented in 

 Appendix 16. Two hundred seventy-nine mountain goat obser- 

 vations were recorded during 21 aerial and 17 successful 

 ground trips. Sex and age classification of the mountain 

 goats observed each month is given in Table 4. Goats were 

 identified as unclassified adults or unclassified goats 

 when some or all of the characteristic features could not 

 be assessed. 



Spring was the only season for which 2 years of data 

 were collected. A combination of these data reveals that 

 half of all observed goats were seen on a due east aspect, 

 reflecting the observability of the Mount Vernon-Spires 

 area (57% of all observations, see Figure 13). All spring 

 observations occurred on one of the four concentration 

 areas. Information collected during July 1978 was pooled 



26 



