Nation IN BRIEF : NEW MEXICO : Airborne Searchers Hunt ‘Atomic Goat’
Searchers were using helicopters and planes with tracking equipment in hopes of catching a radioactive goat before it could mingle with and possibly contaminate bighorn sheep. The sheep are on New Mexico’s endangered species list. The animal, dubbed “The Atomic Goat,” was one of 62 Angora goats fitted with radioactive isotopes in March in an effort to track them and study hunting patterns of coyotes that killed any of them. After 10 goats broke out of the Jornado Experimental Range area in southern New Mexico in May, federal officials ordered the project halted and the goats killed. One goat remains free.
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