I have observed yearlings grooming 
their mothers, and in one case, a re- 
tained offspring paid particular atten- 
tion to its mother’s badly wounded 
eye. Such aid-giving behavior may 
help reduce the risk of infection and 
increase the probability of survival. 
Unattached yearlings or two-year- 
olds, although they are not tolerated 
in the same way as retained offspring, 
often attempt to follow adult females. 
This finding suggests that there may 
be some advantage to associating with 
an older individual. For example, 
young animals may learn the location 
of prime feeding areas by following 
adults that have a better knowledge 
of the home range. 
The introduced mountain goats of 
Olympic National Park represent a 
difficult and complex problem for the 
park service. The alpine wilderness of 
the Olympic Mountains provides an 
excellent habitat for these animals, 
and these nonnative herbivores may 
be altering the composition of plant 
communities and even endangering 
some rare endemic varieties. 
Botanical studies initiated by Ingrid 
Olmsted, and expanded by Douglas 
Pike and William Pfitsch of the Uni- 
versity of Washington, suggest that 
the introduced mountain goats have 
reduced plant cover, increased erosion, 
and shifted plant-community domi- 
nants toward more resistant or less 
palatable species. Unfortunately, only 
a limited amount of information exists 
about the structure of this plant com- 
munity prior to the introduction of 
the goats, but noticeable changes have 
been observed since these botanical 
i studies began. In addition, mountain 
goats are known to graze on at least 
three of the endemic plants. Such 
grazing results in the removal of a 
significant number of flowers — the po- 
tential source of seed for future gen- 
erations. If sexual reproduction from 
flowers is more important than asex- 
ual, or vegetative, reproduction in 
these plants, then overgrazing could 
ultimately result in a decrease in the 
size of their populations. The effects 
During the mating season, corneal 
glands at the base of a male’s horns 
secrete a liquid that stains the lower 
part of the horns. The secretion 
may be rubbed on bushes as a 
means of expressing dominance. 
lind Pat Leeson 
.1 
of grazing, combined with erosion 
caused by soil disturbance and with 
competition from disturbance-adapted 
plants, could eventually lead to the 
extinction of some species. Feral do- 
mestic goats are known to have elimi- 
nated many species of indigenous 
plants in the Galapagos Islands and 
other island ecosystems. 
Detailed analyses of exclosures — 
fenced areas built to exclude mountain 
goats — suggest that the recovery of 
badly damaged meadows will proceed 
slowly if at all. Studies by Ed 
Schreiner of Olympic National Park 
indicate that similar meadows dam- 
aged by as few as 500 passes by human 
hikers may take up to 100 years to 
recover. The congressional act of 1916 
that established the National Park 
Service specifies the preservation of 
natural ecosystems as one of the or- 
ganization’s primary responsibilities. 
According to a frequently quoted pas- 
sage, the service’s purpose in the lands 
it controls is to “conserve the scenery 
and natural and historic objects and 
wildlife therein and to provide for the 
enjoyment of the same in such a man- 
ner and by such means as will leave 
them unimpaired for the enjoyment 
of future generations.” To fulfill this 
obligation, the Olympic mountain 
goats and, for that matter, all intro- 
duced species should be removed or 
at least carefully controlled on lands 
under park service jurisdiction. How- 
ever, practical and political obstacles 
to such a management plan abound. 
The political implications are particu- 
larly significant, since the National 
Park Service is a federal agency whose 
actions are subject to public scrutiny. 
Ironically, the animals have long been 
promoted as a tourist attraction and 
have even been featured on posters 
advertising Olympic National Park. 
The concern over public response 
to a management plan that would re- 
move introduced animals from federal 
lands is based on previous experience. 
Attempts to control feral burros in 
Grand Canyon National Park have 
met with serious opposition. Released 
by prospectors about the turn of the 
century, the burros successfully 
adapted to the environment and repro- 
duced prolifically. Indeed, as early as 
1924, park managers hoticed that the 
burros’ foraging and trampling were 
having an impact on the canyon’s frag- 
ile ecosystem. Periodic efforts at con- 
trolling the animals, made between 
1924 and 1969, resulted in the capture 
or shooting of nearly 3,000 burros, 
but complete eradication was never 
achieved. These attempts at control- 
ling the animals came to a halt when 
groups began protesting the killings. 
The dispute eventually led to a court 
battle, and the issue is still not re- 
solved. 
Some wildlife managers have attrib- 
uted emotional outbursts over the kill- 
ing of feral burros to a sociological 
phenomenon termed the Bambi syn- 
drome, after the animated Disney 
character. Public attitudes about ani- 
mals and nature have certainly been 
influenced by anthropomorphic char- 
acterizations in books, films, and tele- 
vision. Regardless of the factors re- 
sponsible for such attitudes, however, 
there are those who believe that burros 
have a right to life and that they 
should be kept in the park for people 
to enjoy. Still others contend that the 
animals’ continued presence may re- 
sult in the destruction of a natural 
ecosystem that took many millenni- 
ums to evolve. Once destroyed, such 
systems cannot be replaced. 
Understandably, park service offi- 
cials must exercise care in their prep- 
aration of a mountain goat manage- 
ment plan for Olympic National Park. 
Research efforts are continuing, and 
management options will be presented 
for public review. Not all management 
options call for destroying the entire 
population. For instance, it might be 
possible to restrict the animals to par- 
ticular areas of the park and carefully 
control their numbers. Alternatively, 
it may be possible to capture and 
transplant at least some of the animals 
to locations in their natural range. Hu- 
mane treatment of the animals is an 
important consideration, and a de- 
tailed knowledge of mountain goat 
ecology and behavior will be essential 
to the development of management 
alternatives. 
The controversy surrounding the 
management of introduced species has 
focused increased attention on some 
difficult philosophical questions. 
What is the function of our national 
park system? And should the park ser- 
vice’s primary responsibility be to pre- 
serve natural ecosystems in as pristine 
a state as possible or simply to provide 
the public with enjoyable places for 
recreation? As human population 
growth, urban expansion, and an ever 
increasing demand for resources re- 
duce our once-abundant natural areas 
to mere islands of wilderness, ques- 
tions of this kind will assume con- 
siderable importance. 
69 
