The October through March data reflect goat movements 

 to lower elevations; the lowest elevational mode was noted 

 during February. The combination of aspect and elevation 

 data suggests that goats distributed themselves in response 

 to the first occurrence of highly nutritious spring vegeta- 

 tion. Goats not only follow the green-up around the mountain 

 from west and south to east and north, but also from low to 

 high elevations. During the warmer summer months and the 

 advent of vegetation desiccation, mountain goats were ob- 

 served primarily on cool east and north aspects at the 

 highest elevations available. As snow began to accumulate 

 goats moved down and onto the Spires and Ross Point wintering 

 areas where snow shedding abilities and forage availability 

 dictate mountain goat occurrence. 



The Spires area of Mount Vernon and Ross Point have good 

 snow shedding capabilities and are therefore important winter 

 range. Mountain goat winter occurrence, based on information 

 gathered during the October through April 19 77-19 78 period 

 is presented in Figure 6. Figure 6 also shows the federally 

 controlled lands which the KNF has designated as well suited 

 big game winter range. Mountain goat winter range was not 

 recognized by the KNF because their criteria did not allow 

 consideration of the type of terrain which moiintain goats 

 utilize . 



Although mountain goats were observed on Sawtooth Moun- 

 tain during March 19 76 (G. Brown, pers . comm. ) the possible 

 use of the Mount Vernon and Ross Point areas during the 

 winter by goats which use higher areas during spring and 

 summer cannot be determined without the aid of marked animals. 

 Weather information indicates that up to 18 m (58 ft) of 

 snow falls on the West Cabinet Mountain ridges. Although 

 goats have been known to use high elevation winter ranges in 

 other areas (Lentfer 1955) , severe winter conditions in this 

 area may dictate migration to lower country having snow 

 shedding abilities such as the Mount Vernon and Ross Point 

 areas. Mountain goat nannies have a strong instinct to re- 

 turn to the same winter range year after year (Kuck 1977) . 



Carnivores 



Black Bear 



Black bear observations and bear sign recorded on the 

 study area are plotted in Figure 15. Table 5 shows that 

 88 percent of the observations occurred in the spring period 

 (April through June). Bear sign included scats (69), tracks 

 (2), diggings (6), marking trees (1 ), hair (1) and den (1). 

 Bears are usually found in cool moist areas later in the 

 summer (Tisch 1961) and the summer of 1977 was unusually 



33 



