Equipped To Survive Equipped To Survive® Presents
The Survival Forum
Where do you want to go on ETS?

Page 1 of 2 1 2 >
Topic Options
#209767 - 10/17/10 02:44 PM Man killed by goat in Olympic National Park
Teslinhiker Offline
Veteran

Registered: 12/14/09
Posts: 1418
Loc: Nothern Ontario
This is an interesting story...I have been fairly close to mountain goats many times, but never personally seen aggressive behavior. Mountain sheep on the other hand can be very aggressive if you get too close to them..

Bob Boardman of Port Angeles, a devoted hiker, diabetes nurse and musician, was killed by a mountain goat on Klahhane Ridge on Saturday afternoon.

Boardman, 63, his wife, Susan Chadd, and their friend, Pat Willits, had gone for a day hike on the Switchback Trail to Klahhane Ridge, which is near Hurricane Ridge about 17 miles south of Port Angeles.

The three had stopped for lunch at an overlook when a goat appeared and moved toward them, said Jessica Baccus, who arrived on the scene at about 1:20 p.m.

Baccus, also out for a day hike with her husband and their children, saw Willits, her longtime friend, coming up the trail.

Willits told Baccus that when the goat had begun behaving aggressively, Boardman had urged her and Chadd to leave the scene.

More details here
_________________________
Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.

John Lubbock

Top
#209769 - 10/17/10 03:18 PM Re: Man killed by goat in Olympic National Park [Re: Teslinhiker]
ponder Offline
Enthusiast

Registered: 12/18/06
Posts: 367
Loc: American Redoubt
Their response indicated that they were unprepared for any type of aggressive attacker. The goat is one of the least probable threats. My guess is they would have also had poor results from a dog, bear, lion, badger, moose, horney whitetail or Ted Bundy. Most will be consoled with the thought - "It won't happen to me."

I carry a Glock - minimum.
_________________________
Cliff Harrison
PonderosaSports.com
Horseshoe Bend, ID
American Redoubt
N43.9668 W116.1888

Top
#209801 - 10/18/10 03:17 AM Re: Man killed by goat in Olympic National Park [Re: Teslinhiker]
2005RedTJ Offline
Addict

Registered: 01/07/09
Posts: 475
Loc: Birmingham, Alabama
I'm thinking some 230-grain JHP's would have taken care of the goat. That sucks.

Top
#209830 - 10/18/10 11:47 AM Re: Man killed by goat in Olympic National Park [Re: 2005RedTJ]
unimogbert Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 08/10/06
Posts: 882
Loc: Colorado
While ridge walking on my way to a 14'er (Gray's)I was approached by a goat. It stood up from lying on the grass. It wasn't moving quickly but had its head down and got within about 15' of me. My initial reaction was that it wanted its ears scratched but I reconsidered and bravely ran away.
("run" being only a concept of brisk departure at 13,000')
Fortunately the footing was tundra and even though it was steep I could open the distance effectively. He could have killed me with just a nudge to get me off balance and tumbling.

I've always wondered about that encounter and whether it was dangerous or not. I guess I know now.

Top
#209845 - 10/18/10 04:37 PM Re: Man killed by goat in Olympic National Park [Re: Teslinhiker]
Susan Offline
Geezer

Registered: 01/21/04
Posts: 5163
Loc: W. WA
The sidebar on that article said the park service personnel were familiar with that particular goat:

'Barb Maynes, park spokeswoman, said the ram was known for its aggressive behavior, including reports of it following people along the trails around Klahhane Ridge.

'The park had been monitoring the ram for "the last several years," she said.'

So, what happened here? Is the goat of an endangered variety? Is there a shortage of goats in the area? Or were the park people just being politically correct in not shooting the goat when they knew it was a potential danger?

As Teslinhiker said, they're not known for their aggressive nature, so most people wouldn't think it was a threat, as with the usual predators. And if it suddenly became a threat (as it did), what did the park people surmise the people were likely/able to do about it?

Once again, a group of people who should have known better failed to take the long view. It's always the knee-jerk response.

Sue

Top
#209861 - 10/18/10 07:11 PM Re: Man killed by goat in Olympic National Park [Re: Teslinhiker]
ireckon Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 04/01/10
Posts: 1629
Loc: Northern California
I'm OK with hunting for food and killing an animal in self-defense. However, I don't think it's right to set out to kill an animal just because some unequipped humans would like to frolic in the area. For those who want safety without having to think about survival, then I recommend Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, California. Wear ample sunscreen and don't go on the rides. There's also the option of watching Animal Planet in your home while leaving the goat's territory alone.
_________________________
If you're reading this, it's too late.

Top
#209866 - 10/18/10 07:44 PM Re: Man killed by goat in Olympic National Park [Re: Teslinhiker]
Art_in_FL Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 09/01/07
Posts: 2432
So much for people thinking sheep are defenseless.

The BBC story says that the main injury, possibly the only one, was from being gored in the leg. Evidently it caught a major vessel. If someone had known to, and had enough on the ball to think to do it, a tourniquet might have kept him from bleeding out.

A male goat being territorial is entirely natural. Butting heads is just what they do to solve territorial disputes. Evidently the guy advanced attempting to shoo the goat away and 'protect his family'. Which is what you say when you really should have stepped off gracefully and in good time. The time to back off was when the the goat initially looked square at them and bowed up.

Manning up and facing off only works if the the goat doesn't call your bluff. Stepping up and facing off was goat behavior for 'I accept your challenge'. Male goats face off and ram each other as a way of life. Those goats can come in at 300 pounds and they are tough and strong. As befits an animal that runs up mountains as a way of life. Can't blame the goat because the ape descendant didn't know how to play the butt-heads game and got his leg in the way.

No, I don't think the Park Service did anything wrong. You can't cure stupid and asking them to Nurf the wilderness for you is silly. Wild animals are, by definition, wild and they have minds of their own and are potentially dangerous. A shame they had to shoot the goat. Sounds like the goat was just doing what goats do.

Top
#209878 - 10/18/10 08:52 PM Re: Man killed by goat in Olympic National Park [Re: Art_in_FL]
Teslinhiker Offline
Veteran

Registered: 12/14/09
Posts: 1418
Loc: Nothern Ontario
Art is correct on many points. Knowing and observing animal behavior is key. We will never know all the facts that occurred from this incident, however it is a safe bet that Art comments about confronting the goat contributed to the man being attacked and gored. It was drilled into my head almost a lifetime ago, the safest reaction to an close encounter with almost any animal is to back off and give the animal and you some space. 99.99% of the time this will work and human and animal will both live on.

The 2 photos of mine below illustrate the different behaviors I observed a couple of years ago in the Canadian Rockies.

The first photo here is a mountain goat which is the same species that attacked and gored the hiker.

In this particular case, the goat did not seem to care that we were close by (but not too close to cause a confrontation) and it simply walked past while keeping a wary on us. Notice the horns on the goat? It is easy to see how the goat was able to gore the hiker.


This mountain sheep on the other hand was quite aggressive even though he was a fair distance away. More then once he turned directly toward us with head lowered and feet dug in charge mode. Based on it's aggressive behavior, and keeping an extremely close eye on the sheep, we slowly backed away and down a small knoll out of eyesight. The sheep then came over the knoll and proceeded to stare us down while we cleared completely out of the area.
_________________________
Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.

John Lubbock

Top
#209886 - 10/18/10 11:00 PM Re: Man killed by goat in Olympic National Park [Re: Teslinhiker]
clearwater Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 03/19/05
Posts: 1177
Loc: Channeled Scablands
The goats are a non-native species introduced to the park by
hunters years ago. The park has relocated quite a few in the past.
Time to allow some hunts there it sounds like. Washington is a shall issue state, so if you pay your $60 and get a concealed carry license, you can take a weapon with you into that National Park for self defense it would seem.

Top
#209887 - 10/18/10 11:05 PM Re: Man killed by goat in Olympic National Park [Re: Art_in_FL]
Phaedrus Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 04/28/10
Posts: 3148
Loc: Big Sky Country
Originally Posted By: Art_in_FL

The BBC story says that the main injury, possibly the only one, was from being gored in the leg. Evidently it caught a major vessel. If someone had known to, and had enough on the ball to think to do it, a tourniquet might have kept him from bleeding out.


It's especially sad since apparently he was a nurse. And according to MSN.com, a doctor attempted to treat him shortly after the attack. It's possible that the victim was in shock and was incapable of assisting in his own treatment and/or that he'd already lost too much blood for the doctor to stabilize him. But it may be more likely that applying a TQ didn't occur to anyone. It used to be that the prevailing dogma was that a TQ just showed the surgeon where to perform the amputation but recent military experience has shown that to be false. IIRC the new standard of care for massive hemmorage is application of a TQ, then the application of high-flow diesel. A proplerly applied TQ can be left on for up to eight hours (according to recent information) without harm to the limb. And of course, even in an extreme case I'd rather be alive and missing one leg than dead with both of them.
_________________________
“I'd rather have questions that cannot be answered than answers that can't be questioned.” —Richard Feynman

Top
Page 1 of 2 1 2 >



Moderator:  Alan_Romania, Blast, cliff, Hikin_Jim 
March
Su M Tu W Th F Sa
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
Who's Online
0 registered (), 456 Guests and 71 Spiders online.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Newest Members
GallenR, Jeebo, NicholasMarshall, Yadav, BenFoakes
5367 Registered Users
Newest Posts
What did you do today to prepare?
by dougwalkabout
03/27/24 11:21 PM
Zippo Butane Inserts
by dougwalkabout
03/27/24 11:11 PM
Question about a "Backyard Mutitool"
by Ren
03/17/24 01:00 AM
Problem in my WhatsApp configuration
by Chisel
03/09/24 01:55 PM
New Madrid Seismic Zone
by Jeanette_Isabelle
03/04/24 02:44 PM
EDC Reduction
by EchoingLaugh
03/02/24 04:12 PM
Newest Images
Tiny knife / wrench
Handmade knives
2"x2" Glass Signal Mirror, Retroreflective Mesh
Trade School Tool Kit
My Pocket Kit
Glossary
Test

WARNING & DISCLAIMER: SELECT AND USE OUTDOORS AND SURVIVAL EQUIPMENT, SUPPLIES AND TECHNIQUES AT YOUR OWN RISK. Information posted on this forum is not reviewed for accuracy and may not be reliable, use at your own risk. Please review the full WARNING & DISCLAIMER about information on this site.