Forest Rangers Confirm Sighting of Rare Albino Goat

Filed in archive Hiking on June 25, 2007

This has very little to do with outdoor sports or adventure travel, but I found it fascinating and wanted to share it.

Today, in the only documented case, forest rangers in Italy confirmed the sighting of a rare albino mountain goat. The goat was photographed with his mother at 10,000 feet in the northern Italian Alps. They named him Snowflake, how appropriate.

"This is the only one ever documented, the only one ever seen," Chioso said by telephone on Monday. He said albinism is rare in any species and has not been previously documented among the capra ibex, a type of wild mountain goat with large curved horns that lives in mountainous areas.

Chioso estimated the albino animal is about a year old.

Hikers had been reporting seeing a white animal at higher elevations for months, and forest rangers have been keeping a lookout, Chioso said.

The goat was seen near the boundaries of the Big Paradise National Park, which was established to protect the species. Chiaso said about 4,000 wild mountain goats populate the park.

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