Becoming one with nature now has a whole new meaning.
On Sunday a “goat man” was spotted in the mountains of northern Utah by local hiker Coty Creighton. The man was wearing a homemade white goat suit that included fake horns and a cloth mask with eye holes. He was traveling with a herd of goats up the mountain on his hands and knees.
“I thought, ‘What is this guy doing?’ ” Creighton told The Associated Press. “He was actually on his hands and knees. He was climbing over rocks and bushes and pretty rough terrain on a steep hillside.”
Creighton told the AP that the man would occasionally stop and pull up his mask to check where he was going.
Phil Douglass of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources believes that the man is merely an extreme wildlife enthusiast.
“People do some pretty out there things in the name of enjoying wildlife. But I’ve never had a report like this,” Douglass told the AP. “There’s a saying we have among biologists — You don’t go far enough, you don’t get the data. You go too far, you don’t go home. The same is true with some wildlife enthusiasts.”
Douglass said the “goat man” isn’t doing anything illegal, but that authorities are concerned for his safety. Goat-hunting season begins in September, meaning that 60 permitted hunters will be allowed in the area. Authorities fear that the man might be shot or attacked by a real goat.
“I want people to enjoy Utah’s wildlife. We live in a really neat place. We have wildlife all around us,” Douglass told the AP. “We just want people to be safe.”