The short answer is yes, then.
But the fact is that it is so rare, and almost never just as a result of clumsiness.
Goat bucks can be boisterous creatures, and being on the side of a sheer cliff doesn’t put them off the fighting.
Let’s look further into this.
Can mountain goats fall?
Yes, they can. They really do not fall very often, but they certainly can fall.
They’re not incapable of falling, and despite their dexterity in climbing sheer rock faces, they are still only masterfully perched on.
With enough force, they could easily be pushed off.
That’s the key point, though.
When a mountain goat falls, in the vast majority of cases, it is because they were pushed in one way or another.
Let’s look at the two main causes of this.
The first, and most common, is that they were being pursued by a predator.
In these cases, they will become much more frantic, paying much less attention to where they are going.
This can cause them to fall.
They can also simply be pushed off by the predator, whether intentionally or not.
Male mountain goats, though, are also quite prone to competing with and fighting one another—after all, they have those big horns!
When they fight in a less-than-ideal spot, they can end up falling off.
They can also deliberately attempt to push each other off the edge.
So, yes, they can fall—but do they die?
Do mountain goats die when they fall?
It naturally depends on how high the cliff is.
If it’s high enough, then the fall could certainly kill them. mountain goats are hardy and have adapted to be able to take a bit of a fall, but there’s still only so much they can take.
In most cases, though, the goat usually does not die.
Mountain goats don’t actually tend to climb the highest cliffs and peaks they can find.
They tend to stay to relatively low elevations, and so when they fall it is not quite as bad.
The thing about mountain goats is that they need to be able to come down regularly to drink.
There are fewer sufficient drinking sources the higher up you go.
So, the falls are typically not high enough to kill the goat—though, again, it is certainly possible.
How often does it actually happen, then, that goats fall?
How often do mountain goats fall?
Realistically, it is a very rare occurrence.
Mountain goats do not often fall, as they are incredibly sure-footed.
That said, it’s not as if it is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.
Mountain goats are frequently pursued by predators and very often get into fights, the ultimate object of which is to push the other one off.
The point, then, is that the falls are very rarely fatal.
We don’t find a lot of evidence of mountain goats falling because they usually walk away unscathed.
If we found many deceased mountain goats who had died as a result of falling, we could say it happened frequently, but the fact is we simply don’t.
So, it’s hard to put any kind of figure on it, really.
The simple answer is mountain goats falling is quite rare, and mountain goats dying from those falls is even rarer.
So, why are they so good at climbing and not falling?
Why are mountain goats so good at climbing?
The most important thing about mountain goats that lets them climb so well is their slim bodies.
They are able to easily shimmy around on the cliff face, moving from ledge to ledge and squeezing their bodies in tightly to the rock.
Their cloven hooves mean they can grip tight footholds securely, making it virtually impossible for them to fall once they have a good foothold.
The cloven hooves are one of the key parts.
Furthermore, the bottoms of their hooves are almost like the soles of shoes.
They are rubbery, almost, allowing them to grip excellently onto the surface of the rock.
It begins to make sense why they fall so little, then.
They are some of the best, non-primate climbers in the animal kingdom!
Mountain goats are really fascinating creatures, then.
They are capable of feats we might think of as impossible, climbing rock faces with no apparent footholds of any kind.
But they are not completely impervious to falling off. That said, they will usually only fall off if they are being bothered by another animal.
Whether they are being pursued by a predator or knocked off the cliff by a rival male, goats can and do fall from the mountain.
But this is very, very rare.