Has any naturalist previously noticed that the muskox (Ovibos moschatus) is exceptional among ruminants in being able to sit like a dog or cat? part 2

Grok

MY QUESTION

I suspect that Oreamnos americana sometimes sits like a dog or cat, which would be anomalous for a ruminant. Find an image showing this posture, and scour the Web for any mention of sitting in O. americana. Supply full references.

ANSWER FROM GROK

Yes, Oreamnos americana (mountain goat) does sometimes adopt a dog- or cat-like sitting posture on its haunches, which is atypical for most ruminants (who more commonly stand, lie sternal/chest-down, or rest on their sides).⁠Npshistory

Key textual mentions

The clearest historical description comes from a 1926 National Park Service naturalist’s observation in Mount Rainier National Park:

“During the hot part of the day the mountain goats go up on the snow field and glaciers, where it is cooler and where there is less trouble with flies. The same localities are often visited repeatedly by the flock. It is a common habitat for them to sit down on the snow or ice on their haunches like a dog. As the slope is sometimes a little steep it is preferable for them to sit on the same spot on the snow or ice, especially after a depression on the slope is once formed. By so doing day after day, the depressions become deep and it is not uncommon to come upon goats half concealed in their sitting posture.”⁠Npshistory

The same note also records an individual animal “sat dog fashion looking up the rock.”⁠Npshistory

Full reference:

Mount Rainier Nature Notes, Vol. IV, No. 9 (August 25, 1926). Available at: (or the mirrored version at ). Author is a park naturalist of the period (exact byline not always listed in the digitized notes).

Citednpshistory.com 1·npshistory.com 2

A second, related behavioral description appears in modern management literature on rutting (breeding-season) behavior of billies (males):

“During the rut billies will sit on the ground similar to a sitting dog. With an arched neck and head looking towards the ground, the male will paw quickly and vigorously with a front leg, throwing snow and dirt at his belly, hind legs and flanks creating a rutting pit.”⁠Parkplanning.nps

This is documented in National Park Service mountain-goat management materials (e.g., Olympic National Park mountain-goat action plan / related planning documents drawing on earlier ethological work such as Geist and deBock). Full example source: (and parallel language in other NPS planning files such as parkplanning.nps.gov documents).

Citednpshistory.com

Broader literature on mountain-goat resting emphasizes bedding depressions that animals dig and reuse, often on snow, rock, or bare ground near escape terrain, but the explicit “haunches like a dog / dog fashion” phrasing is most prominent in the 1926 Rainier notes. General resting-posture studies of ungulates note that body size and limb proportions influence whether animals sit, lie sternally, or lie laterally; mountain goats’ stocky build and short legs make a haunched sit feasible.⁠Sciencedaily

Images of the posture

Clear, labeled photographs explicitly captioned as “sitting like a dog / on haunches” are scarce in open web results (most stock and park photos show standing, cliff-perching, or conventional sternal/lateral lying). However:

Stock and park photography frequently depicts mountain goats in compact resting postures on snow patches, rocky ledges, or cliffs that match the described haunched sit (front legs extended or tucked, hindquarters lowered). Examples include Getty and Alamy images tagged with “mountain goat … rest / sitting / on snow / on cliff” from Glacier National Park and similar sites (e.g., search terms “Mountain Goat And Kid Rest On Snow Glacier National Park” or “Mountain Goats Sitting On Cliff side in Glacier National Park”).⁠Gettyimages

Flickr and Wikimedia Commons hold numerous public-domain or freely licensed photos of O. americana resting on snow or rock in Glacier, Mount Rainier, and other parks; some show animals in a low, compact posture consistent with the textual description (search “mountain goat rest snow Glacier” or similar on those platforms).

Contemporary wildlife videos and stills from Glacier and Olympic National Parks often capture animals settling into or rising from snow beds in a dog-like fashion, though they are rarely captioned with the exact phrase.

Because the 1926 account describes the behavior as common on snow/ice (especially in heat), the best visual matches are photos of goats on persistent snow patches or glaciers in summer. No single definitive “poster” image was located that is both clearly dog-like and accompanied by the precise caption, but the textual record is unambiguous and the posture appears repeatedly in field observations.

In short, your suspicion is correct: the dog-/cat-like haunched sit is a documented, if infrequently photographed and annotated, resting (and sometimes rutting) posture in Oreamnos americana. The 1926 Mount Rainier Nature Notes remain the most direct and detailed published reference.