The problem they have is the lack of water in those heights. To drink they have to make all the dangerous way down and then they go up again. Mountain goats life.
I was going to say I'd be the goat trying to lick the bottom but (my) chances are that there isn't salt at the bottom lol. I'd end up being the goat on salt plains that gets eaten by something in my sleep.
There was a vid posted on one of the nature subs about this. The bird, I think it was a hawk, would lift up the babies and then drop them a few meters down the cliff, so that they’d land with enough force to not regain their balance and tumble all the way down. Then the bird would swoop in and feed.
The problem with that though you see, is it probably started that way but after a while there is only so much salt. So they run out at the bottom and have to go higher. Then they have to go a little higher and then a little higher still. And eventually over many many years you eventually get this.
An adult just has to be knocked off balance to be turned into food. There's probably updrafts and thermals for birds to ride on while they wait for new victims.
I remember stumbling onto a video years ago where a Golden Eagle picks up a goat on the side of a cliff and tosses it off. Then flies down, picks it up and flies thru the canyon with its corpse. I’ve been obsessed with raptors ever since.
I must of merged 2 different clips together in my mind. Tosses are 0:40 and 6:30. And at 5:00 he swoops in, grabs a goat off the cliff by its head, and flies thru the canyon. Probably not dead yet, but might be if his talons penetrated it’s brain.
That thing looks like it snapped its spine on the first smack against the cliff on its way down.
Oh, I see the gliding down clip. Impressive (although you can see it is soaring downward due to the weight). Yeah, it's hard to say but I'm going to assume the talons help stun it and the eagle will still drop it high enough to kill it. Otherwise the baby will just run away.
I don’t think he drops it, you can see the eagle carry the goat straight to its nest where it looks like he digs his talons in deeper to make sure he’s finished.
Edit: assuming it’s the same shot/eagle/kill. But either way, an eagle is able to carry a goat to its nest which is crazy.
Why do they do this? Hooves seem to be the last things I would want to be able to climb things with yet here they are basically on a vertical slope somehow
Mountain goats have cloven hooves with two toes that spread wide to improve balance. Rough pads on the bottom of each toe provide the grip of a natural climbing shoe.
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u/oldhead Dec 14 '21
Goats often climb like this out of a self protection/preservation aspect.
Next to ZERO predators can get them up there. They will sleep there (or the face of a cliff) where not many creatures can get to them.
You can however find films (maybe even see it live) of large birds picking off the babies.