The Best Way to Move Mountain Goats? Helicopters.

Biologists in Utah are using helicopters to transfer mountain goats from one population to another.

As the saying goes, it sometimes rains cats and dogs. But high over the mountains of Utah, visitors may occasionally spot a flying mountain goat, dangling underneath a helicopter.

Since the species was introduced to the state in 1967, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources has kept its scattered populations—about 2,000 statewide—genetically healthy and viable for sightseeing and hunting. (Also see "Bighorn Sheep Are Helicoptering Their Way Back From the Brink.")

Utah wildlife officials periodically replenish mountain goat numbers by relocating dozens of animals at a time from other populations at risk of overpopulation. In the video, experts transfer mountain goats—native to Alaska and Washington, among other North American locales—from northern Utah’s Willard Peak to southern

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