It’s Miller Time for mountain goats in Colorado’s San
Juan National Forest when hikers and hunters head home. The goats
come down from the high country to congregate at campsites where
visitors have urinated. Driven by a craving for salt, the animals
have torn up the tundra in the forest’s Weminuche Wilderness. “It’s
a strange situation,” says wilderness coordinator Jim Upchurch in
the Gunnison County Times, “and not a habit we want the goats to
pass on” to their kids. The goats’ penchant for pee, which brings
as many as 40 of the shaggy animals to a campsite, is reminiscent
of a problem caused by mountain goats in Glacier National Park in
Montana (HCN, 9/5/94). There, goats lick sweet-tasting antifreeze
and create traffic jams when tourists stop to gawk. Solutions
considered for the San Juan goats’ salty addiction include
strategic placement of salt licks and restrictions for campers in
some backcountry
areas.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A penchant for pee.
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