Anglehorn’s band
On January 2nd, 2024, we still had very little snow. The series of record-breaking-but-quickly-melted blizzards everyone now (March) remembers happened in mid-January. Goats until those blizzards had little cause to descend to the bottom of their winter range—at least not for reason of mobility-restricting snowpack. But I often find them low above town around New Years. Two possibilities: 1) They seek human proximity when wolves pass through. And 2) The matriarchs are scouting every corner of their winter range. Maybe it’s a good idea to do this while terrain is easily negotiable and everybody’s still fat and fit from the summer’s grazing.
Anglehorn was named for a distinctively outward leaning horn on her right side—probably from childhood injury. She summers 4 miles away at 2,500 to 4,000 feet. First half of this one-minute video is Anglehorn with kid. At 40 seconds on the slider, her more symmetrical colleague & kid appear. They were part of a dispersed 8-member nursery band, all foraging below the 800-foot contour.