15 Unique Facts about Goats
Goats are practically funny animals and most times they tend to be stubborn. However, goats and humans have history together. Well, if you want to find out more about goats and also interesting facts them, then do well by going through this article.
You should know that aside the environmental benefits of goat, they can also serve as a good source of beef for food.
Below are helpful tips about goats that might be of interest to you.
15 Unique Facts about Goats
(1) Goats Were The First Animals to Be Domesticated
This is in fact a true fact, as over 11,000yrs ago when the goat domestication took place in the “Near East”, this event was what led to the paradigm shift of mankind from hunter-gatherers to agriculture-based societies.
(2) Goats Were In fact The First Animals to Be Brought to America
The first and obviously, earliest European settlers brought goats to America, Mayflower.
Also, by they year 1630 a town “Jamestown”, during census listing in the state, it was shown that goats were the most valued possessions in the colony at that time.
(3) Gained Popularity During The 1904 Worlds Fair in ST. Louis
Goats gained surge in popularity during the first diary goat show in America 1904, as well as an exhibition that was carried out that year that featured over 300 “Angora Goats”.
Read Also: Description of Some Popular Goat Breeds
(4) Female Goats Giving Birth Is Referred to As “Kidding”
Do you know that a baby goat is called “A Kid”, well it is obvious that you don’t know, but now you have an idea of what a baby goat is called. Because a baby goat is called “a kid”, that is why goats giving birth is called “kidding”.
(5) Goats Don’t Have Upper Jaw Teeth
Goats incredibly don’t have upper jaw teeth’s, instead they just have a very strong dental pad. Although, they do however have an upper lip that helps them through sorting thorny twigs to find tender leaves.
(6) Goats Have Rectangular Pupils
This variation of shapes shared by different sheep’s, is what gives them a great and fuller vision than humans and any other animals with round pupils.
Do you know that goats can see up to 340 degrees in their environment anything ahead of them. This gives goats a greater advantage against predators.
Although, one advantage about goats having flattened pupils is that they can’t look up or down without moving their heads.
(7) Goats Have Four Stomachs
Goats have a four-chambered stomach that helps them to easily digest tough grass and hay. Food enters the rumen first and then passes to the honeycombed reticulum where non-digestible objects are separated out.
In the omasum chamber, water is removed from the food before it finally enters the “true” stomach, the abomasums.
(8) Goat Milk Is The Most Popular Kind of Milk Worldwide
Even though, it seems cow milk is more popular. But in most part of the world today both goat meat and milk is consumed more than any other animal.
Read Also: What is a dairy goat? What do dairy goats like to eat? Which goat gives more milk?
(9) Health Benefit of Goat Milk – Why You Should Drink Goat Milk
Goat milk is great and it contains high calcium and vitamin A However, it’s naturally homogenized (meaning it doesn’t separate out into layers in its original state) and is easier to digest than cow’s milk, even by people who are lactose intolerant
(10) Goats Do Faint
There is a specie of goat called the “fainting goat”, this kind of goat is referred to as the myotonic goat.
Because of a genetic quirk, when they get excited or startled, myotonic goats’ muscles freeze up, causing them to topple over.
They’re not actually fainting, they remain totally conscious and their muscles return to normal within minutes or seconds, but the notable behavior has made them Internet favorites.
(11) Abraham Lincoln Loved Goats
During the reign of Abraham Lincoln, among all pets, the white house was populated with goats, at that time they were two goats in his office Nanny and Nanko were there names.
Also, at that time Lincoln’s son would use them for chariot ride’s around the Whitehouse.
(12) Cashmere Comes From Goats
You should also know that the incredibly soft and expensive cashmere is made of the downy winter undercoat produced by certain goats.
The reason why cashmere sweater are so costly is because the hand-wrought process of separating the silky material from the goat’s wiry outer coat is incredibly time-consuming.
(13) Goats Discovered Coffee
Coffee was discovered according to an Ethiopian legend, when a goat herder discovered his flock frolicking with extra verve after consuming the red berries of the coffee shrub.
The plant had the same energizing effect on the herder himself, and with that, the tradition of drinking coffee was (supposedly) born.
(14) Goats Have Incredible Agility and Balance
Goats have the ability of climbing trees, although not all goats. However, they can survive in unstable and insecure rocky habitats.
(15) And Yes, Goats Have Accents
Just as human voices will vary in cadence and inflection by geographical region, a particular goat’s bleat will sound different from that of a goat in a different country.
Read Also: List of Breeds of Goats for Meat Production (Goat Breeds for Meat)
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