Where do mature males go when rut has ended?
Soon after we began near-daily observations of mountain goats in autumn, 2020, it occurred to us that motion sensor cameras might help in extending our Jánwu story into seasons when these otherwise-obvious animals were hidden in cliffy, tall-tree forest. Examples of goaty motioncam slideshows streamable from JuneauNature are 108 days, and its sequel, Final month. I confess, however, that I didn’t immediately notice a puzzling absence of males on these forest cameras after rut ended, around mid-December. (Easier, I guess, to notice what’s there than what isn’t.) Only in the past year has this become a pressing enough mystery to motivate directed searching. Wintering_billies, below, shares our quest, and recent discoveries.
Here’s how January looks as my new desktop background
Calendar for Goatlandia
A year ago I posted an early digital version of a calendar featuring mountain goats and their habitat. It’s continued to evolve, and we may eventually offer one through Discovery’s bookstore at the glacier visitor center—perhaps for 2025. Meanwhile, a small run is being printed for educators and the ‘goating cognoscenti,’ and I’ll be posting portions for download in pdf format.
Front and back covers of the Goatlandia 2024 calendar
I realized awhile back that after using even the prettiest desktop background for awhile, I stop ‘seeing it.’ So I’ve formatted the January Goatlandia page to fit my 16:9 laptop screen. There’s room on the left for a few files and folders, but not so much as to foster housekeeping chaos. Now I have a constantly visible calendar that I never tire of scrutinizing. In Photoshop I regularly update it with appointments, observations etc, then reset to desktop background. At year’s end it’ll be archived with the other months as my record of 2024
Of course, the main benefit of this desktop background is weekly reminders of what our coolest wild animal is doing, her latest hairstyle, and where she’s hanging out. Each of these thumbnails in the 12-month calendar was taken on that day in the years 2020 thru very early 2024.
Here’s the introductory pages of the calendar, and January, to get you started. For the teachers in our June 2023 Natural and cultural history of Goatlandia workshop, the digital version of the calendar served as our Goating—101 textbook (yes, it’s way geeky). More will follow, as we move through 2024. Happy new year, and as Liz Gifford would say, Goat for it!
Okay, we’re almost done with January. So below is download link for February to June. I suppose if you actually wanted it as a wall calendar these could be printed single sided, and taped together with the feature pic positioned above that month’s calendar.
And to round out the year, here’s July thru December 2024 plus the end-matter; more tips on estimating age, etc.
