A Beast the Color of Winter: The Mountain Goat Observed

by Douglas H. Chadwick

"In North America there is one large animal that belongs almost entirely to the realm of towering rock and unmelting snow. Pressing hard against the upper limit of life's possibilities, it exists higher and steeper throughout the year than any other big beast on the continent. It is possibly the best and most complete mountaineer that ever existed on any continent. Oreamnos americanus is its scientific name. Its common name is mountain goat." Resourceful, belligerent, and unbelievably sure-footed, the mountain goat is a white-coated survivor from the Ice Age. Oreamnos americanus shares its dizzying alpine world with elk, eagles, bighorn sheep, and grizzlies. This first full-length book on the mountain goat offers a superbly written portrait of its life, habits, and environment. Douglas H. Chadwick tracked mountain goat herds for seven years, and his observations are richly textured and replete with fascinating and dramatic details. We learn of the mountain goats' lives from birth to adulthood, their feeding habits, unique social behavior and courtship rituals, and their long history. Chadwick also makes clear the troubling and escalating impact of the modern world on the mountain goat's wilderness home. This Bison Books edition features a new introduction by the author.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Nature, Natural History

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dry at times but everything you need to know about mountain goats. This species should not be hunted. It is an outlier when it comes to management. Its limited range and its social behavior amongst its own kind are adequate constraints on its population.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book in a used bookshop en route to Glacier National Park and brought it with me. I lucked out; I could not have had a better companion book for that trip. This is some of the best nature writing I've encountered - precise and scientific, but also incredibly beautiful. It's a relatively short book, but packed with information, including detailed descriptions of goat anatomy, habitat, and behavior (down to the average numbers of chews per second a goat takes while eating), as well as stories about the author's life on the mountains, a great chapter on other animals that share the goat's range, and thoughts on conservation and hunting regulations. It also contains some photographs (very good ones, though unfortunately black-and-white and not very well reproduced) and some useful drawings.

I love wildlife in general, but this book turned me into a mountain goat fan. It really helped me appreciate their beauty and uniqueness even more than I would have otherwise.

[Adam Weis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book nearly as awesome as its title. Great overview of the climbers, their habitat, neighbors, politics, etc. Wish I could watch goats all day for 20 years too. The last part of the last chapter is one of the most compelling messages I've read.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5 stars.
*I picked up this book probably twenty years ago due to the charming and amusing title and my love of mountain goats. I've also always loved Hugh Grant's delivery of the line "He leaps from rock to rock with the grace of a mountain goat" in the movie Sirens (as he, yes, leaps from rock to rock...).Finally getting around to it.
"To be treated like a peculiar but passable mountain goat might not appeal to many people. I took it as a compliment of sorts" (11).
"Seven years is a long time to go goat watching, I suppose, and it leaves you unfit for a lot of other occupations" (11).
"Science, which is essentially an organized form of wonder…" (12).
"...looking out from behind the stockade of four shaggy legs…" (24).
"The creature may not be able to spring from rock to rock with the grace of a high-rumped mountain sheep…" (54). *I guess Hugh Grant was wrong.
"Spring snow is a practical joke to walk on, and when you are rigged out like a traveling pawnshop it is bound to have the last laugh" (67).
"For years the down parka I used was a red on, and every so often on a late spring hillside a calliope or a black-chinned hummingbird would appear, dazzling around me like an electron as it checked out the incredible possibility that I might be some sort of a giant blossom" (73).
"...windier than a Senate debate" (81). *Nice one, Douglas.
"The rare goat in a closed forest has all the self-assurance of a child in a haunted house.
"With this last sentence it becomes clear that I've been generalizing for a couple of pages at the expense of the forest-wintering coastal goat ecotypes" (90.) *I'll say.
"You could also say that the white climbers just don't seem inclined to accept a 'goatalitarian society'…" (130).
"It's not too bad. It's not to anything" (145).
"Chock full of hormone-pumped gumption and gripped by moosey jealousies..."(158).

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

enjoyed it, but sometimes the flowery prose got distracting. there are only so many synonyms you can invent for "mountain goat".

[Tanner Scheetz · Rating 4 out of 5]

High above the trees
Dwells a weird white climber
Licking at urine

[Al Scully]

A scientific slog of a book that took me way too long to read but was very interesting.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent account of the lives, behaviors and survival challenges of mountain goats by a biologist who not only has spent thousands of hours observing them, but who is an excellent writer. The book reads more like a series of very short stories about individual goats and incidents in their lives, rather than a dry biological treatise.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

best book I've ever read in my entire life