Mountain goats, bighorn sheep caught eating pothole filler along road to Mount Evans
It's general knowledge that goats will eat just about everything. There are even stories of mountain goats in Colorado's high country eating something silly or licking the salt off your car. But this was a new one for us at CBS News Colorado.
The Colorado Department of Transportation confirmed they are no longer using an eco-friendly version of their pothole filler for asphalt along the road to Mount Evans after mountain goats and bighorn sheep were seen chomping down on the mixture after it was filled in.
Crews say they noticed the issue shortly before they opened the road up for the 2023 summer season and were able to quickly able to replace the filler with something the animals would not eat.
As for why they wanted to munch on this part of the road, the secret is in the ingredients.
"Some of the biological components they used to be more eco-friendly were, for example, canola oil, soybean oil, palm nut extract oil, and tallow, which is animal fat," Clear Creek County Commissioner Randy Wheelock said Tuesday. "So they used those as biodiesel to mix with the asphalt to try and make it more environmentally friendly, it was also apparently pretty tasty for the mountain goats up on the mountain."
Colorado Parks and Wildlife have said they have done recent surveys and all the herd populations seem healthy, and they had no reports of any of the animals being hit while on the road because of the tasty pothole filler, so this just got to be a pain-free lesson to CDOT it's not the best option where hungry goats and sheep might be snacking on their mixture.
From now on, CDOT said they will not be using that mixture in the high country or along the I-70 corridor where they could attract the animals again.
