Zoo visitors horrified by goat's strangulation

By Dave Dormer, Sun Media
Sat, January 17, 2009

Visitors to the Calgary Zoo were horrified yesterday after a wild goat got caught in a rope and strangled.

Aubrey Williams, 26, got to the zoo about noon with her daughters -- a two-year-old and a five-month-old -- as well as her grandparents when they saw the Turkmenian markhor, known for its long twirled horns, on a log bridge between two large rock piles in its enclosure.

"That was one of the first exhibits that we stopped at," she said. "We were watching the mountain goats and one was struggling.

"It looked at the time like it was just kneeling, then when it kept trying to get up to its feet and couldn't, that's when I could tell something was wrapped around its neck."
Williams said she was about six metres away from the animal and after turning her daughters away, went into a gift shop to alert staff.

"Her only response was an apathetic, 'Oh, that happens to them all the time,' and I said, 'I don't think you understand, it's around its neck, I don't think he can breathe,' " said Williams.
Keepers arrived a few minutes later, said Williams.

"Once they got up to the enclosure and my grandparents pointed out the goat, they rushed in, grabbed the goat and the two of them were struggling to hoist the goat up so they could cut the ropes."

Williams watched the keepers do CPR, but it was too late.

Zoo staff said the rope was tied to a boomer ball, an enrichment toy that was suspended above a log walkway.

"It had been there for several years, but somehow the markhor managed to get the rope tangled around its net and then lost its footing," said Cathy Galliver, the zoo's director of conservation.

"We are of course very saddened by this incident."