A mountain goat removed from a Deer Mountain neighborhood on Thursday was released by wildlife officials into the wild.
“They were able to catch him very humanely,” Deer Mountain resident Barry Silver said. “They’re going to place him in a very safe place.”
The goat had wandered into his neighborhood about a week ago, Silver said.
Mountain goats are rarely seen at the lower elevations in Wasatch and Summit counties.
“We’re all walking around smiling because it was so nice,” Silver said. “He was docile and he was not scared and it was a beautiful thing to behold.”
Residents didn’t harass the goat as it drew excited spectators while climbing onto decks and a roof, he said.
“‘Cool’ is the word that I have been using for the past six days,” Silver said in a telephone interview Thursday. “My wife was the first person to see it. He was in my driveway.”
Wildlife officials arrived in the neighborhood Thursday morning to examine the situation.
“They decided after looking that they really needed to move [the goat] to a place that is safer for him,” Silver said. “He was clearly alone, which is unusual for mountain goats.”
The goat was on the ground when it was shot with a tranquilizer dart.
“He had just jumped off the roof,” Silver said.
The goat was later released in the Uinta Mountains east of Kamas.
“We actually have a bunch of mountain goats in Summit County,” said Bruce Johnson, a conservation officer with the state Division of Wildlife Resources. “They’re usually going to be at the higher elevations. But you can see them in Park City. They will wander down.”
But it was unclear how the goat ended up in Deer Mountain.
“I’m figuring it came from the Uintas,” Johnson said. “I thought it would make its way back to where it needed to be.”
A horse trailer was used to transport the young male goat into the forest.