# Why do mountain goats climb mountains? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 28, 2014, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937 "2014-01-28T09:35:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937/21 "2014-01-28T21:30:41Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > What I’ve always wanted to know (seriously) is if they ever biff it. Are there piles of goat mush at the bottoms of 1000-foot alpine cliffs? If so, how often does it happen? Has anybody ever been killed by falling goat? A bighorn sheep (sorry, not a mountain goat) and a couger once fought in a battle to the death. [they both lost.](http://imgur.com/gallery/UnJ5n) **WARNING - pictures of dead animals.** ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937/22 "2014-01-28T21:48:52Z")
That doesn’t even look possible (those goats on the face of the dam). It doesn’t even look like they could possibly keep their center of gravity above their feet. Do they somehow shift much of their internal mass towards the side of their body nearest the wall? ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937/23 "2014-01-28T22:31:59Z")
Because you can’t climb a plain. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937/24 "2014-01-29T01:02:08Z")
> [@Lazlo Hapsburg](#): > > Once, I saw a documentary that showed how they escape predators that way. [Not airborne predators…](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VklTs-Tid_I) (warning to the faint hearted…) ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937/25 "2014-01-29T04:17:20Z")
You have to admit, though, there aren’t any predators able to scale a near-vertical dam face for a goat dinner. ---
**Author:** ![randompattern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@randompattern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randompattern)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937/26 "2014-01-29T04:33:07Z")
Even more impressive, the elusive Tree Goats. 😃 > **[The Incredible Tree-Climbing Goats of Morocco - WebEcoist](http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2008/08/19/the-incredible-tree-climbing-goats-of-morocco/)** > > Amazingly, these uncanny animals are actually real: they climb the Argan trees of Morocco in search of food, which is otherwise sparse in the region. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937/27 "2014-01-29T05:35:31Z")
Eh, these kids today! ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937/28 "2014-01-29T06:24:24Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > Because you can’t climb a plain. ah…so that’s why there’s no animal called a “plains goat” ! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937/29 "2014-01-29T06:25:18Z")
I’ll pm you my digital photos of mountain goats ~13000 ft if you want. They’re pretty far away, the way mountain goats like it. You couldn’t catch one of those guys. 13000 ft is a lot of work for a human, but these guys _don’t even care_ that they’re up that high. It is utterly normal to them, and they are all Carl Lewis. The mountains are only in your mind. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937/30 "2014-01-29T09:14:51Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > [You’re not kidding](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1320804/Mountain-goats-climb-160ft-near-vertical-Cingino-dam.html) (I assume this is what you were referring to). yeah. you don’t even need an eagle, just a mischievous crow spooking some of the jumpier ones. ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937/31 "2014-01-29T21:03:29Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > ah…so that’s why there’s no animal called a “plains goat” ! 🙂 No… but I wonder what the elevation of a scape is. ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937/32 "2014-01-29T21:57:59Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > That’s the [Sidehill Gouger,](http://www.lumberwoods.com/p39.htm) or Sidehill Dodger, not the mountain goat. The original is the Dahu in the Alps: DAHU ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2014, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937/33 "2014-01-30T00:18:02Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > Because you can’t climb a plain. I’m sick of these mountain goats in this monkey fighting plain! ---
**Author:** ![randompattern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@randompattern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randompattern)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2014, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937/34 "2014-01-30T00:34:07Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > No… but I wonder what the elevation of a scape is. Low, very low 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2014, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937/35 "2014-01-30T09:49:12Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > I always tried (without much success) to convince my children that they have two legs on one side shorter than on the other. This meaning that they always had to go one way round the mountain. In French & Swiss folklore, that animal is called the [dahu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahu). According to my father, there’s actually two species of them : clockwise dahus and counterclockwise dahus. Mating between the two breeds is possible albeit very difficult logistically, and can produce a tragical evolutionary dead-end : the diagonal dahu, with a shorter front leg on the right side and back leg on the left (or vice versa). Those tend to fall down the mountains a lot. “Hunting the dahu” is French for a snipe hunt or wild goose chase. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2014, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937/36 "2014-01-30T15:50:21Z")
Because it’s right there in the name. They’re required by law to do it. Same reason mountain lions aren’t running across the veld somewhere chasing zebras. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937/37 "2014-01-30T20:29:56Z")
One of the Discovery Channel/Animal Planet nature documentaries had a segment on one type of mountain goat that was just mind-boggingly agile and quick. They could sprint alongside the nearly vertical rocky mountain surfaces. Even shortly after birth, these little bastards could easily outrun and outmaneuver predators. Getting down to get food and water was kind of a hassle, but for that kind of safety, totally worth it. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2014, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937/38 "2014-01-31T12:54:02Z")
Because they’re mediocre. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2014, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937/39 "2014-01-31T18:43:23Z")
[Etymology of mediocre](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=mediocre&allowed_in_frame=0) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937/40 "2014-01-31T19:21:24Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Because it’s right there in the name. They’re required by law to do it. Same reason mountain lions aren’t running across the veld somewhere chasing zebras. Also, same reason you don’t find skylarks eating sea urchins. (Or vice versa, I suppose.) 🆒 ETA: But they are all of them cooked by **Chefguy** and consumed by **Mangetout**! 😃 More ETA: I STILL want to know how in the world those dam-climbing goats even keep their center of gravity above their feet! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mountain-goats-climb-mountains/679937.md?page=3)