Man killed by aggressive mountain goat in Washington park was an experienced hiker

A 63-year-old man described by authorities as an experienced hiker died from injuries he sustained during an encounter with an aggressive mountain goat Saturday in Washington's Olympic National Park.

According to the Peninsula Daily News, Bob Boardman, of Port Angeles, Wash., was on a day hike with his wife, Susan Chadd, and their friend Pat Willits and had stopped for lunch at an overlook when a mountain goat appeared and moved toward them.

When the goat began behaving aggressively, Boardman urged Chadd and Willits to leave the scene.

Bill and Jessica Baccus, also out for a day hike with their children, saw Willits, a longtime friend of Jessica's, coming up the trail.

"Nobody saw what actually happened," Jessica was quoted as saying in the Peninsula Daily News. "They heard Bob yell."

When the group returned to the scene, they saw the goat standing over Boardman, who lay on the ground bleeding.

Bill, an off-duty park ranger, was able to get the goat to move away by waving a blanket at it and pelting it with rocks, although the animal stayed nearby. The Coast Guard was called while Jessica began cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Boardman.

When the Coast Guard helicopter crew arrived on scene, Boardman had no pulse, according to Lt. Commander Scott Sanborn, though the crew continued to administer CPR. Boardman was airlifted to Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles, where further efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

After the helicopter departed the ridge, rangers were able to locate the ram, identified by the blood on it, and shoot and kill the animal, park spokeswoman Barb Maynes said.

Some 300 mountain goats live in Olympic National Park. Warnings about their aggressiveness have been issued, but Maynes said she knew of no other incident like the one that occurred Saturday.

-- Kelly Burgess
twitter.com/latimesoutposts

Photo: Bob Boardman in 2007, during a hike in Washington's Olympic National Park. Boardman was killed in an encounter with a mountain goat in the same park Saturday. Credit: Penninsula Daily News / Associated Press

Comments

[jen]

An aggressive animal could be ill/infected with rabies or something else that is causing it to act aggressively, and you can't leave it to possibly injure or kill other humans or other animals.

[Rover Deluxe]

This is strange. Still, why did they have to kill the goat? It's not like it's a carnivore that would have acquired a taste for human flesh.