Mountain goat is somewhat of a misnomer as these animals are not true goats (like the domestic goats) at all. Their closest relative in Alaska is the musk ox. They are an ancient animal which have not developed the ritualized fighting common to sheep with the head butting and sparring. Sheep horns are massive and their skulls thick, an evolutionary adaptation for non-lethal combat. Mountain goat horns are dangerously sharp and their skulls thin, hardly an arrangement conducive to anything but inflicting heavy damage to a potential predator.