WILLARD PEAK, Utah ( ABC4 ) — Fifteen mountain goats are scheduled to be transported by helicopter to their new northern Utah home later this season, according to the Division of Wildlife Resources.

DWR officials said they plan to transport 15 mountain goats from a thriving mountain goat herd to a smaller one on Willard Peak in November or December in order to strengthen the regional population.

The transport process — which is used mainly for bighorn sheep and mountain goats — is no easy feat, as the goats must go through several steps before being released into their new habitat.

First, DWR will contract out a wildlife capture company to fly over the herd in a helicopter and shoot a “net gun” to capture the goat.

“They’ll fly over these goats, and they’ll shoot the net out at just the right time. And that net will fall and hit the animal, and it kind of tangles the animal up,” said Mark Hadley, DWR’s northern region outreach manager.

Hadley said the employees then hobble the goat, blindfold it to help it calm down, and place it in a sling to fly it back to a handling area. At the handling area, DWR biologists take measurements and test the animal for disease to avoid spreading anything to the new location.

From there, biologists will place GPS collars on some of the goats and they will be transported by trailer to their new environment.

“It is a bit stressful for these goats to go through the capture process and all of that. However, most of them make it through that process just fine,” Hadley said. “They’re pretty amazing animals. You know, these wild animals, they can endure a lot.”

He said as long as the animals are placed in a suitable habitat — such as a mountainous terrain around 13,000 feet in elevation — then they will be able to successfully adjust to the new location.

In the state of Utah, wildlife officials use this method of relocation mainly for mountain goats and bighorn sheep. Otherwise, this process of capture and release is used when wild animals venture too far into the city and need to be safely returned to their habitat.

Hadley said there are 1,500 goats across the state of Utah and the statewide population appears to be relatively stable at this time. He said DWR moves mountain goats across the state to increase populations that are not as strong as others through the introduction of more females.

“The way to really build a population up is to put more female animals into the population,” he said. “A billy goat will breed with several females, so you don’t have to have as many males in the population as there are females in order to still make that population grow.”

In addition to boosting the population, Hadley said there are several other reasons DWR officials transport mountain goats, including that the herds benefit the ecosystem when it is the proper size.

DWR also transports goats to provide Utahns with the ability to see mountain goats in nature across the state.

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“The biggest reason that we want to see goats in various places in Utah is mostly because people really enjoy seeing these animals out in nature. And mountain goats are really fun to watch,” he said.

He said they live in steep areas that look impossible to live on, making it an amazing sight to see. They also pose a challenge to hunters, who can only receive a “once-in-a-lifetime” permit to hunt for them in the state of Utah.

“They live in these really steep, rocky areas. You’d look up and say, ‘There’s no way that a wild animal could live and move up around there.’ And then you watch these goats, and it’s just amazing to watch their movements and things that they can do,” Hadley said.

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