Earth Almanac: November/December 2007

Billy Goats Gruff

In the high, cold country of the Canadian and American West, mountain goats—the continent’s only species of chamois-like “goat antelope”—are congregating in larger groups. Courtship, initiated in early winter when females undergo synchronized estrus, entails much chasing and kicking. At last the billy cautiously approaches the nanny from behind, sniffs her genitals, then rests his chin on her rump. She responds with stiff-leg kicking. After mating the nanny is apt to lick the billy’s neck or face. Unlike domestic goats (to which they’re not closely related), mountain goats have nearly smooth horns that curve only gradually toward the neck and, instead of a true beard, a throat mane that continues onto the chin. With their double coats of inner wool and thick guard hairs, mountain goats can’t tolerate warm summer temperatures. So as the last glacier shrank, they retreated northward from as far south as Arizona, New Mexico, and northern Mexico. Their current natural range is southeastern Alaska to south-central Washington and east to Montana and Idaho, but they’ve been successfully transplanted in Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Olympic National Park in Washington.

Candy Ferns

Late fall is the time to look for licorice ferns in coastal mountains from the Aleutian Islands to central California.  You’ll find the long, pointed evergreen fronds bursting from the wet moss on deadfalls, stumps, and the trunks and branches of deciduous trees. But it is the brown, translucent, licorice-flavored rhizomes that provide the medicine and tasty snacks long favored by Indian tribes of the Pacific Northwest. They contain ostadin, a compound 3,000 times sweeter than sucrose and said to be an effective alternative to antihistamines in relieving lung congestion, sore throats, and coughs.