Projects Funded
RMGA has proudly supported a variety of conservation research projects over the years. Our grants have helped fund innovative research in areas ranging from long-term population studies to genomic research. Browse through some of our past projects and discover the groundbreaking work we're supporting to protect mountain goats.
2022 West Kootenays, British Columbia
In 2022, Luke Vander Vennen with the Government of British Columbia applied for an RMGA Science and Conservation grant. Luke proposed to fill significant mountain goat knowledge gaps by deploying 15 GPS collars into several study areas across the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, Canada for three winter seasons. These collars will provide information on winter habitat selection, critical kidding areas, mortality rates, and important mineral lick locations.
11 collars have been previously deployed in nearby areas, so this project provides an excellent opportunity to partner with existing projects and develop a spatially extensive dataset through the deployment of additional collars across the region. These data will provide critical insights into mountain goat movement patterns, habitat selection, and survival rates.
RMGA members can access the full report.
Photo credit: Darryn Epp Photography
2022 Glacier National Park, Montana
In 2022, Forest Hayes applied for an RMGA Science and Conservation grant. Unabated global warming threatens to shift ecosystem ranges faster than species can adapt. This risk is especially pronounced for cold-adapted species, such as mountain goats, which experience strong climatic limitations to their geographic range and dispersal. Hayes’ seeks to understand the effects of local climate on the fine-scale behavior of mountain goats and how this may affect future range-wide habitat suitability. This research will inform understanding of behavioral response to local climate and the range of variability in response throughout the southern portion of the range of mountain goats.
RMGA members can access the full report.
2022 Glacier National Park
In 2022, Jami Belt applied for an RMGA Science and Conservation grant for a research project in Glacier National Park. The park needs to understand whether goats in GNP are a single population or subdivided into smaller subpopulations to provide context on the significance of this apparent decline. Information is currently needed to guide proposed infrastructure and regulations that are currently under consideration. Goats are in the park's Foundation documents, and studying goats from ecological and human interaction perspectives is a park goal.
RMGA members can access the full report.
2022 Caw Ridge Alberta
Sandra Hamel's (Laval Uinversity) monitoring project marked animals within the only mountain goat population that has been intensely studied for over 30 years, in Caw Ridge, Alberta. The goal is to increase knowledge on population demography and the factors that affect the variation in population dynamics and individual traits. This information is used to recommend management and conservation options.
Full report available to RMGA members.
2022 Baranof Island, Alaska
In 2022, Kiana Young with Trent University applied for an RMGA Science and Conservation grant to provide compensation for the time needed to finish analysing the study results and produce the final manuscript.
The goal of this study is to characterize the genetic population structure and demographic history of mountain goats in Alaska. Over the past years, we have collected over ~2000 samples from mountain goats across their range in Alaska. These samples have been extracted and genotyped at 14 polymorphic loci. For example, Baranof Island in Southeast Alaska has been of interest to researchers and land managers due to previous evidence that an endemic population of mountain goats existed on the island before the introduction in the 1920s. The addition of samples from this analysis could help further highlight how mountain goats on Baranof Island are related to mainland mountain goats.
RMGA members can access the full report.
2021 La Sal Mountains, Utah: Interactions between American pikas and mountain goats
In 2021, Mallory Lambert applied for a RMGA Science and Conservation grant. Lambert’s project intends to study the ecological and behavioural interactions between mountain goats and American pikas; they are sympatric across most of their overlapping distributions, but historically their interactions have not
been studied. Lambert hopes to provide insight to improve success rates of mountain goat transplants while minimizing negative impacts on pikas.
Full report available to RMGA members.
2021 Cheam GMU, British Columbia
In 2021, Daniel Guertin applied for an RMGA Science and Conservation grant. Guertin’s project involved organizing a ground-based citizen science survey of moutnains in the Cheam GMU with a concurrent aerial inventory. The results of both surveys would be compared. If the surveys came back with similar results, then this project would act to validate citizen science surveys as cost-effective alternatives or augmentation to monitor goat populations in the region and province.
2021 Caw Ridge, Alberta
In 2021, Sandra Hamel applied for an RMGA Science and Conservation grant. Her proposed project included monitoring marked animals within the only mountain goat population that has been intensely studied for over 30 years, in Caw Ridge. The goal was to increase knowledge on population demography and the factors that affect the variation in population dynamics and individual traits. They can use this new information to recommend management and conservation options.
Full report available to RMGA members.
2020 Human Conflict and Coexistence With Mountain Goats in a Protected Alpine Landscape
Laura Balyx previously applied for an RMGA Science and Conservation grant to help fund the research for her thesis project. Balyx’s project focused on understanding the response of mountain goats to these disturbances for conserving future populations and managing anthropogenic disturbance in protected areas. Her project was a unique opportunity to study mountain goats in a protected area (Cathedral Provincial Park (CPP), British Columbia, Canada) where the herd interacts with both people and helicopters.
The full thesis can be read here.
2019 Veterinarian Support on Olympic Peninsula
The RMGA Conservation Fund generously provided funding to support the translocation efforts of mountain goats from the Olympic Peninsula to their native Cascade mountain range. As a result of this support, Dr. Katie Haman, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Wildlife Veterinarian, was able to participate in these captures, providing much needed veterinary support to ensure the humane capture, treatment and health assessment of translocated goats.
2019 ONP Summer Mountain Goat Capture
RMGA conservation dollars were utilized at the 2019 capture to purchase everything from GPS collars for Washington Department of Game & Fish, to an additional veterinarian to help process animals, as well as funding the attendance of biologists Tom Stevenson and Kevin White to further develop their ultrasound body condition measuring techniques.
2018 Ultrasound Body Condition Measuring in ONP
Unfortunately, a reality of drugging and relocating wild animals is that not 100% of them survive. What is to become of these expired animals? The RMGA recently funded for Conservation Committee member, Kevin White of Alaska Department of Fish and Game, to travel to Washington with his colleagues Tom and Kathleen Stephenson (California Department of Fish and Wildlife) and Yasaman Shakeri (Alaska Department of Fish and Game) to make sure these valuable specimens would contribute to important scientific studies and did not go to waste.