Mountain Goat Kills Hiker by Alex Robinson October 19, 2010

1. Mountain Goat Kills Hiker by Alex RobinsonOctober 19, 2010 3.5a ROBERT BOARDMAN, 63, was hiking with his wife and friend in Olympic National Park on Monday when he was attacked and killed by a mountain goat. The trio was hiking up a popular switchback trail and decided to stop for lunch when the goat approached them and started acting aggressively. Boardman tried to scare the goat off, but instead of running away, it charged him goring him badly in the leg. More hikers came to try to help Boardman, but the goat stood over the man’s body and wouldn’t let any other hikers come to his aid.

2. 3.5b An hour after the attack, rescuers finally arrived at the scene but Boardman died from his injuries. Park officials eventually shot and killed the goat. Apparently, that specific goat had shown aggressive tendencies in the past. ‘It has shown aggressive behaviour, however, nothing led us to believe it was appropriate to take the next level of removal,’ park spokeswoman Barb Maynes told the Associated Press. ‘This is highly unusual. There’s no record of anything similar in this park. It’s a tragedy. We are taking it extremely seriously and doing our best to learn as much as we can.’ The goat is being examined by scientists to see if it had any diseases that could have caused it to act so aggressively.

3. 3.5c Content • News articles often have the ‘who, what, where and when’ at the start of the story. Is this the case here? If so, note down each aspect. • Expert or witness comments in direct speech are often included to give weight to a story. What do we find out from Barb Maynes? Structure • Why wouldn’t the information about Barb Maynes be the first paragraph of the article? • What does the final paragraph focus on?

4. Mountain Goat Kills Hiker by Alex RobinsonOctober 19, 2010 3.5d Content Structure Style Robert Boardman, 63, was hiking with his wife and friend in Olympic National Park on Monday when he was attacked and killed by a mountain goat. The trio was hiking up a popular switchback trail and decided to stop for lunch when the goat approached them and started acting aggressively. Boardman tried to scare the goat off , but instead of running away, it charged him goring him badly in the leg. More hikers came to try to help Boardman, but the goat stood over the man's body and wouldn’t let any other hikers come to his aid. An hour after the attack, rescuers finally arrived at the scene but Boardman died from his injuries. Park officials eventually shot and killed the goat. Apparently, that specific goat had shown aggressive tendencies in the past. ‘It has shown aggressive behaviour, however, nothing led us to believe it was appropriate to take the next level of removal,’ park spokeswoman Barb Maynes told the Associated press. ‘This is highly unusual. There's no record of anything similar in this park. It’s a tragedy. We are taking it extremely seriously and doing our best to learn as much as we can.’ The goat is being examined by scientists to see if it had any diseases that could have caused it to act so aggressively.

5. Who are the real animals? 3.5e The recent death of a hiker, gored by a mountain goat, might make us think that animals really are a real threat to humans, whatever the species. However...