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Mountain goat Daisy and mom Bluebelle are getting ready for a big move!

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications

Mountain goats Daisy and mom Bluebelle shortly after Daisy's birth in June 2018. Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo 

We've spent a year watching this kid grow up, and now it's time for her and her mother to move to a new home! Last summer, Woodland Park Zoo hailed the birth of a mountain goat, the first one born at the zoo in 23 years. The female goat, Daisy, sparked excitement and her cuteness made us gave us all the feels.

Now it's time for Daisy and mom Bluebelle to move to a new home. Mother and daughter will be heading to Dakota Zoo in Bismarck, N.D., where they will join a male mountain goat in a newly remodeled exhibit—but you can still come see them here through September 30.  Their departure will leave two mountain goats remaining at the zoo: Atlin, half-sister of Bluebelle, and Zeus, a young male. 


Daisy (left) here with Zeus (right) in January 2019. Photo: Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo

Daisy was born in June 2018 to then 2-year-old mom Bluebelle and 4-year-old dad Albert, who has since moved to another zoo. She and mom have lived in the high rocky crags and ledges in the zoo’s award-winning Northern Trail habitat with Atlin and Zeus.

Last November, 1-year-old Zeus was introduced to the herd. He was part of a project under the National Park Service, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and USDA Forest Service to translocate non-native mountain goats from Olympic National Park to the northern Cascade Mountains. Woodland Park Zoo partnered with Northwest Trek Wildlife Park and Oregon Zoo to provide permanent homes to goat kids without mothers, like Zeus. 

Mountain goats, like 1-year-old Daisy, are right at home in the snow. Photo: Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo

Rocky Mountain goats naturally range from southern Alaska, Canada, Washington, Idaho and Montana. Transplanted populations now live in Colorado, Oregon, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, South Dakota and here in Washington's Olympic Peninsula. Remarkably adapted for life on steep, cold mountain ledges, mountain goats live, sleep, and eat at elevations of 10,000 feet and up. They're perfectly adapted for super harsh conditions such as snowy slopes, winds up to 100 mph, snow drifts of 30–60 feet high and chilly temperatures down to -50 degrees. BRRRRRRRRRR!

Comments

Unknown said…
The babies are so cute