A week ago, I had an exciting encounter with a juvenile Mountain Goat along the Going-to-the-Sun road in Glacier National Park (Montana). While I was photographing a small family of mountain goats that were descending from the high mountains to lower ground, a second pair of mountain goats (a mom and a juvenile) were foraging in the roadside parking area (likely getting salts from the pavement). At one point, the juvenile, who appeared to be a year old, walked over to me and stopped just a few feet away. A few people in the area turned and ran. But my past experiences with mountain goats have always gone good. So I stood my ground, but tried to be non-threatening. All this little guy was doing was checking out a strange being in his environment, with a strange metal object in his hands! After a few seconds (seemed like minutes!), he turned and walked off to join his companion.
Here is a photo that was made while the young goat was checking me out:
I always love such wonderful encounters with wild things, especially with young animals that exhibit a curiosity. This photo was e-mailed to me by the photographer, using a Canon point/shoot camera.