Water - Water is not believed to be a limiting factor on most mountain goat ranges, as these are either in moist climates or in areas with persistent snowfields. Habitat selection by mountain goats is often determined by needs for security from predation. Visibility of surroundings is also important to mountain goats. Lack of visibility may limit their use of dense stands of conifers far from escape terrain. Mountain goat resting sites include rocks, snowbanks, and vegetated areas.
Mountain goats eat a variety of plant species.
Grasses, sedges, rushes, forbs, and shrubs have each been reported as abundant in the diet or as preferred in both winter and summer studies. Tree species comprised less than 4 percent of the diet. Mosses, lichens, and ferns were comsumed in trace amounts. In Colorado, grasslike species made up approximately 96 percent of the summer diet, while less than 4 percent of the vegetation consumed consisted of forbs. The utilization of grasslike species in winter decreased slightly, to about 88 percent, and about 12 percent of the diet consisted of shrub species.