Nature
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Mountain goats are known for their ability to tackle the most treacherous of terrains. But now, they take on a whole new territory: the skies.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.This video from National Geographic shows goats being airlifted via helicopter from northern Utah’s Willard Peak to southern Utah’s Mount Sutton. As ridiculous as it may look, this process is actually one of the safest and most effective ways to move these goats about. Using tranquilizers instead isn't ideal as they take a few minutes to kick in, by which time the goat could fall at a dangerous spot. Also, these goats are notoriously tricky to trap on the ground.
The goats were introduced to the Utah mountains around 50 years ago. Since then, their numbers have reached the thousands. However, every now and again, some populations become too big for their range, so the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources team relocate them using this rather "off the wall" method.
[H/T: National Geographic]
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