Tom and Pat Leeson 
females is observed most frequently 
at the salt lick, which is a concen- 
trated, defendable resource. 
Our behavioral studies have focused 
primarily on mother-offspring rela- 
tionships. Females usually produce a 
single kid, but twins are also seen on 
occasion. Born in late May or early 
June, the kids are highly precocious, 
being able to stand and walk only a 
few hours after birth. Mountain goat 
kids can be classified as followers 
rather than hiders. More precisely, 
many ungulates, including deer and 
elk, deposit their young in a thick 
patch of vegetation and leave them 
alone. While their mothers are for- 
aging, the deer fawns and elk calves 
lie motionless, thereby reducing the 
possibility of being seen by predators. 
In contrast, mountain goat kids only 
a few days old follow their mothers, 
rarely straying more than a few yards 
away. In the goats’ open alpine habi- 
tat, hiding would be difficult. 
Nannies are generally intolerant of 
strange kids and may chase or threaten 
them if they come too close. Recog- 
nition of young seems largely olfac- 
tory, and nannies commonly smell 
their young upon being reunited with 
them after a brief separation. Mothers 
and kids may also recognize each oth- 
er’s calls, since voice recognition has 
been described for other ungulate spe- 
cies, such as reindeer and domestic 
sheep. The common response of a kid 
separated from its mother is to run 
frantically from one female to the 
next, bleating loudly. Such calls are 
also given when kids fall several yards 
behind their mothers during routine 
foraging or travel. Females may re- 
spond to vocalizing kids by calling 
or by looking for their offspring. 
Like other mammalian young, 
mountain goat kids are nutritionally 
dependent on mother’s milk during 
the early stages of their development. 
For a time, mothers may initiate nurs- 
ing by placing themselves in favorable 
positions, and permitting the young 
to nurse until satiated. Some nursing 
bouts may even be terminated by the 
offspring. This pattern changes over 
time, however, and mothers become 
progressively less willing to allow ac- 
cess to their teats. This weaning proc- 
ess prompts kids to seek nourishment 
elsewhere, and they begin to forage 
regularly on vegetation. Female moun- 
tain goats begin to reject their off- 
spring’s attempts to nurse within the 
first week of life, using a variety of 
methods. For example, a mother may 
step over the offspring and walk away 
or she may give a quick stamp of 
her rear leg. Unless their offspring 
are particularly persistent, females are 
seldom aggressive in this situation. 
Little is known about the break- 
down of mother-infant bonds in un- 
gulates. Previous studies have sug- 
gested that mountain goat young re- 
main with their mothers for about 
eleven months, and that this relation- 
ship is severed just prior to the birth 
of a new kid. Some investigators have 
suggested that severance of mother- 
infant ties is due primarily to maternal 
intolerance, whereas others believe 
that yearlings leave on their own ini- 
tiative. Our observations suggest that 
nannies do become intolerant of their 
yearling just prior to the birth of a 
new kid, but females that become bar- 
ren may extend the period of maternal 
affiliation for up to two years. We 
observed several cases in which fe- 
males maintained consistent associ- 
ation with their yearlings or two-year- 
olds. Such relationships are similar to 
those seen between mothers and kids 
and involved relatively frequent, 
friendly contact. 
Retaining offspring may convey a 
number of advantages. To begin with, 
reproduction requires energy, and fac- 
tors such as the quality of available 
forage and the amount of competition 
for food resources can be expected 
to influence a female’s ability to pro- 
duce offspring in any given year. Bar- 
ren females or those that lose their 
young to predators, accidents, or dis- 
ease may be able to increase their 
older offspring’s chances of survival 
and competitive ability by continuing 
to associate with them. For example, 
we have noticed that retained year- 
lings and two-year-olds share in the 
relatively higher dominance status of 
their mothers, particularly at defend- 
able resources such as the salt lick. 
Young retained by dominant females 
often utilize the lick at the same time 
as their mothers, while their less for- 
tunate peers wait on the periphery. 
Retained offspring also nurse occa- 
sionally, although we have not as yet 
been able to determine whether their 
mothers continue to produce milk. 
They nurse far less frequently than 
kids, and the practice may simply rep- 
resent the kind of nonnutritive “com- 
fort suckling” seen in many young 
mammals. The mothers may also gain 
some immediate advantages from the 
extended period of association. We 
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