Culturally prized mountain goats may be vanishing from Indigenous land in Canada

First Nation peoples in British Columbia partnered with academics to assess goat populations

photo of a mountain goat standing on a rock

A mountain goat pauses on a craggy ridge top in Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation territory along British Columbia’s central coast. Goat numbers appear to be declining in the region, a study finds.

Connor Stefanison

For thousands of years, members of the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation in Canada have prized the mountain goats that roam the craggy peaks of British Columbia’s central coast.