MOUNT EVANS, Colo. (KDVR) — Mountain goats on Mount Evans are experiencing a disease outbreak, which is deadly to young goats called kids.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologist Lance Carpenter and wildlife pathologist Karen Fox are studying the disease, hoping to find the cause and prevent it from spreading.
“The whole idea is to try to figure out what is going on, be able to treat it and get that recruitment back up,” Carpenter said.
“Hopefully, after October we’ll have enough data and samples to determine what is causing this. If we don’t, we’ll continue next year.”
The source of the diarrhea inducing disease, which causes dehydration and damages the wall of the intestines, is not known.
The disease was first observed in late August/early September of 2013, almost all of the kids that year died. The re-population of mountain goats has been very low since 2014.
A new outbreak was observed in early October of 2019.