Rocky Mountain goats and bighorn sheep live above the timber line, the elevation beyond which trees cannot grow. Bears, deer, hares, elk, minks, mountain lions, porcupines, squirrels, and other animals occupy the higher forested slopes. Chipmunks, coyotes, moose, and muskrats make their homes in the grassy valleys between the mountains. Rainbow trout, grayling, cutthroat trout, and other fishes swim in Rocky Mountain streams. Agriculture and industry.
Livestock raising is the main agricultural activity in the Rockies.
Cattle and sheep are driven to mountain pastures for the summer and back to warmer valleys in winter. Farmers raise chili peppers and pinto beans in the Southern Rockies. Grains, potatoes, sugar beets, and truck vegetables are raised in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Utah. The chief industrial activities of the Rockies are mining and lumbering. The Southern Rockies, especially the Leadville District of Colorado, produce gold, lead, molybdenum, silver, tungsten, uranium, and zinc.