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Although the seed remained dormant for many years, writing this book is something I’d always known I would do. That seed was the animal itself and the way time among them enriched my education and launched my career. My graduate studies so long ago were mentored by Bart O’Gara, Phil Wright, Bob Ream, and others. My time in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area firmly planted my boots and my heart in the science and the art of wildlife biology, helping me understand both the scope and importance of the occupation. But the nourishment for the writing came from the growing struggle the mountain goat and so many other species face in this human-dominated world. Any book project is a collaborative effort, even if but one author’s name appears on the cover. Several colleagues were kind enough to review drafts of the work. I thank Douglas Chadwick, Steeve Côté, Marco Festa-Bianchet, Gayle Joslin, Jim Peek, Mike Thompson, Erik Beever, and Andrew Smith for their advice and constructive comments. My thanks also to Laney Hicks for the drawings of mountain goats on pages 129 and 130, and to the other photographers who graciously donated the use of their images. Although we met long after the years when I lived among mountain goats, my wife Diana knows better than anyone Acknowledgments DOI: 10.5876_9781607322924.c010 174 A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S how important this project was to me. Her suggestions, patience, and love throughout the writing and editing process are invisibly stamped throughout the book. I also thank the wildlife biologists and managers from western Canada and the United States who answered my questions, provided reports, publications, and discussion, and offered their encouragement with this project. I am grateful to my editor, Jessica d’Arbonne, that the University Press of Colorado took a chance on a project about a relatively unknown species and accorded the mountain goat and its conservation a larger following. ...

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