When Hudson's Bay trader Alexander Mackenzie first saw the pelt of a mountain goat, he thought it was a polar bear -- the only North American animal he knew that had such long white hair.

Other Europeans who saw the animals alive, rather than skinned and tanned, called them mountain goats, with not much more accuracy.

Mountain goats aren't really goats at all, says Jean Carey, sheep and goat biologist with Yukon Environment. They are a kind of mountain antelope more closely related to the chamois, the mountain antelope of Europe and Asia, than to farmyard goats.

They are found only in the northwestern mountains of North America, from Idaho to the Yukon, the northern edge of their range.

"They are the rarest of our large mammals," says Carey. "There are more mountain goats than recent additions like bison or elk, but other native species outnumber them."

Carey estimates there are about 1300 goats in the Yukon, with 900 of those living in Kluane National Park and Reserve. Most of the rest are in a few locations near the British Columbia border and along the Yukon-Northwest Territories border.

Even getting an estimate of goat numbers is difficult, says Carey, because they are very hard to count. At times they are even hard to see.

"I have watched goats walk into an alder bush and disappear."

Trying to count them from a helicopter or a boat is particularly difficult, she explains, because if they are already in the security of steep cliffs, they don't run when they are disturbed. Their instinct is to hide and fight, which means there is no movement to betray their presence to the biologists.

The instinct to stand their ground, using their sharp horns as weapons, protects them against most predators but makes them very vulnerable to hunters.

"Their saving grace is that they live in incredibly difficult places to get to," says Carey.

Mountain goats spend much of their lives above treeline, roaming confidently across mountain slopes that would leave most humans clinging dizzily to the nearest handhold.

"They're very maneuverable over steep and rugged terrain," Carey says.

Goats are beautifully built for climbing. They have strong forelegs, adapted to hauling them up almost-impossible slopes. Their hooves are shaped like suction cups, with a strong ridge around a relatively soft central pad, providing secure footing on a variety of irregular surfaces.

Although mountain goats are well designed for climbing, they are not built for distance. They have very small hearts relative to their body size, which limits their endurance and their range.

In fact, mountain goats don't wander very far. Unlike mountain sheep, which move between summer and winter ranges, goats tend to stick to one area. Usually they are found in wetter areas where there is a good food supply all year round.

"They'll eat anything in their range," says Carey, "but there has to be enough there to sustain them for the entire year."

Although much of the good goat range in the Yukon is remote and hard to reach, there are a few places where you have a good chance of seeing goats. Carey suggests Mount White, near Jake's Corners south of Whitehorse, where a small re-established population of goats lives. Other likely places are at the Yukon/B.C. border on the Skagway road and the Bennett Range south of Carcross.

Watch for a patch of white, a touch yellower than snow, and wait for it to move, she suggests.

"You have to look carefully and be patient."

For more information about mountain goats in the Yukon, go to www.environmentyukon.gov.yk.ca/fishwild/goat.shtml or contact Jean Carey at (867) 667-5849.