A third goat has died in the Avon Gorge.
The news comes after two goats were chased off the cliffs by dogs in separate incidents in 2017.
The third animal appears to have died of old age, but its death means there are only three of the original grazing herd left.
Six wild Kashmir goats were put in a steep section of the gorge in 2011 to control scrub growth and restore rare wildflowers and grasses.
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The area, which has since become known as ‘Goat Gully’, drops sharply away from the plateau at the top of the gorge to the south of the Seawalls section of the Downs.
The herd, whose bleats are occasionally mistaken for human cries for help, are checked daily by Bristol City Council rangers or volunteers from Friends of the Downs and Avon Gorge.
A ranger found one of the remaining members of the herd had died on March 20.
The council’s grounds supervisor, Ben Skuse, broke the sad news to members of the Downs Committee yesterday (April 8).
The goat was estimated to be 12 or 13 years old when it died, Mr Skuse said.
“Happily, this time at least, on receipt of the autopsy, this appears to be age-related and not dog-related,” he said.
“It died of suffocation related to losing its teeth and not being able to chew its food properly and that lodging in its throat.”
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Mr Skuse said the council will discuss with the steering group which oversees the project whether more goats will be added to the herd or new animals will be introduced to the gully.
The goats have been looked after by council rangers, with help from Bristol Zoo keepers.
Mandy Leivers, the zoo’s Avon Gorge and Downs biodiversity education officer, said the welfare of the goats was of “paramount importance to us”.
"They are the perfect conservation tool in this restoration programme," she said.
The Kashmir goats only eat woody plants because of their primitive stomachs, leaving rare plants such as the Bristol onion and Bristol rock cress untouched.
Those plants are unique to the limestone grassland of Avon Gorge, which is one of only three such habitats in England.
