Olympic National Park News Release
October 19, 2010

Olympic National Park is continuing foot patrols on and near Klahhane Ridge, following Saturday's incident in which sixty-three year old Robert Boardman of Port Angeles died after sustaining injuries from a mountain goat.

Park rangers and wildlife biologists will walk the Switchback Trail and Klahhane Ridge area daily through the fall, closely observing other goats for any signs of aggression towards people.

Throughout the summer, rangers patrolled the Klahhane Ridge area four to five times each week.  During these patrols, rangers monitored goat behavior and talked with hikers about their observations of goat behavior.

Klahhane Ridge is about 17 miles south of Port Angeles and is a popular hiking destination.  It is also home to approximately eight mountain goats, some of which are quite accustomed to seeing people.

“We want to be sure that no other goat is behaving aggressively towards people,” said Karen Gustin, Olympic National Park Superintendent.

“Saturday’s tragic event was extremely unusual and we are doing everything we can to learn as much as possible about it, and to make sure we’re doing everything we can to prevent something like this from happening again,” emphasized Gustin.

The goat that fatally gored Boardman was killed shortly after the incident, following positive identification by the rangers on scene.  A necropsy of the goat was conducted Sunday evening by a veterinary pathologist and tissue samples were collected for full analysis.  A preliminary report is expected within about a week.

The incident remains under investigation.