Montana Department of Commerce 



Mountain Goat 



Mountain Goat: 



Oreamnos americanns 



Another member of the bovidae family, 

 this sure-footed animal uses its padded 

 hooves to get the traction it needs to climb 

 and jump in the high rocky country where 

 it lives at elevations between 5,000 and 

 11,000 feet. It feeds on alpine forbs and 

 grasses on these open areas; in winter the 

 wind keeps its food supply from being cov- 

 ered by snow. 



Goats have heavy long fur; their white 

 coats let them blend in with snow patches 

 on the cliffs and slopes. They have short 

 curved horns with sharp points. The 

 young, often twins, are born late in the 

 spring. 



Bears: Black and Grizzly: 



Family Ursidae 



Both black and grizzly bears live in the 

 spruce-fir forests of western Montana; 

 some black bears may be found in the open 

 ponderosa pine woods of the mountains 

 farther east. Grizzlies require isolated ter- 

 rain; Glacier and Yellowstone national 

 parks, the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area, 

 the Mission Wilderness Area, and the Sun 

 River Game Preserve are their only true 

 refuges in Montana. Other remote areas 

 where they live include the Flathead and 

 Kootenai national forests, the Absaroka 

 "and Cabinet mountains, and a few similar 



areas. The grizzly is considered a threat- 

 ened species— its numbers get fewer as its 

 habitat is limited by human intruders. 



The grizzly (sometimes called the silver- 

 tip) gets its name from the silver-gray 

 guard hairs of its thick fur. The grizzly has 

 enormously long sharp claws that make it 

 easy to dig for tubers, insects, and burrow- 

 ing animals. Black bears may be either 

 brown, cinnamon, or black, but lack the 

 shoulder hump and scooped nose of the 

 grizzly. 



Bears look for their early spring food 

 (marmots and other rodents) in rockslides. 

 Summer finds them moving to alpine 

 meadows where they eat grasses, forbs, 

 and small animals, and as fall comes, they 

 forage for berries and pine nuts. Although 

 bears have been considered as carnivores, 

 in reality meat makes up only 10 to 15 per- 

 cent of their diet. All bears seem to keep 

 enough distance between them to allow for 

 an ample food supply; in cases of food 

 shortages, they may range as far as 30 

 miles from their home territory. 



Bears "den" rather than hibernate. 

 Grizzlies usually dig a north-facing burrow 

 at 8,000 to 9,000 feet altitude, where the 

 winter is spent in a light sleep. Body tem- 

 perature drops slightly, and heartbeat and 

 breathing rate slow. In this way, the animal 

 uses less of its reserves of body fat to sur- 

 vive the winter. 



The young are born during the denning 

 period, every 2 or 3 years. A litter of two is 

 usual. The cubs stay with their mother 

 through their second year. Black bears den 

 earlier than grizzlies, and at lower alti- 

 tudes. They use caves, overhangs, or shel- 

 ters formed by downed timber, since they 

 lack the grizzlies' ability to dig burrows. 



Lynx, Bobcat, and 

 Mountain Lion: Family Felidae 



The lynx is slightly bigger than the bob- 

 cat, with large, heavily-furred feet that let 

 it travel easily over snow. It has a distinc- 

 tive square ruff around the jaws, black ear 

 tufts, and a black marking that circles the 

 tip of its tail. 



The bobcat has a tawny, random-striped 

 coat, and its tail has only a partial black 

 tip. Both of these animals feed on small 

 mammals, eggs, insects, and carrion. 



