Those Amazing Goats!

Posted by Phil Rodgers in Wears Valley

As if you couldn't tell by the name of our attraction, we happen to be partial to goats. We think they're pretty cool critters - so much so that we have a bunch of them hanging around on our rooftop (weather permitting). They graze, they chill out, they interact with all the folks who stop by to say hello throughout the year. So in honor of these bearded beasts, we thought we'd devote an entire blog post to celebrating the amazing goat. And we'll do that by sharing a few facts about them, many of which you may not have known. By the time you're done, you'll be a bona fide goat expert!

• Goats are one of the world's oldest domesticated animals. Did you know that goats were domesticated by humans anywhere from 9,000 to 11,000 years ago?

• Goats can recognize each other's voices. A mother goat can recognize her babies' individual bleats as soon as they're born. And the kids (baby goats) are capable of doing the same. Scientific studies have shown that young goats can actually pick up goat “accents” from other members of their herd as they mature.

• Myth: Goats can eat tin cans and human clothing. We're going to bust that one. Like human babies, goats will investigate lots of things using their mouths. In fact, they'll gum (but not consume) just about anything they happen to run across. But goats are actually picky eaters, and they won't snack on anything but nutritious foods.

• Goats are very agile. That comes in really handy when traversing the mountainous regions they are often native to. They may not look very athletic, but they have a lot of balance and agility. In addition, they can leap as high as five feet in the air, they can scale steep cliffs, and they can even climb trees. So if you ever find yourself having to run away from a hostile goat, climbing a tree won't necessarily help.

• Goats discovered coffee. Or so they say… According to an Ethiopian legend, a goat herder named Kaldi discovered the effects of caffeine after noticing that his goats had a little extra spring in their step after munching on coffee berries. He tried the berries himself, and the rest is history.

• Goats are more likely to point their ears forward when they are experiencing positive emotions. Also, the pitch of their voice is more likely to be steady when feeling positive emotions. When goats are in distress, they're more likely to point their ears backward, and the pitch of their voice will modulate up and down.

• Get on the good side of a goat by smiling. Goats can differentiate between happy and unhappy human faces, and they definitely prefer the happy ones. This may help you avoid that situation previously mentioned where you have to run away from an angry goat.

• Goats can differentiate between human body postures. They can even figure out where treats are hidden by watching what a human points at or what he/she touches.

• Much like dogs, when a goat is unable to solve a problem, it will often turn to a nearby human to fix it, implementing the same classic “puppy dog look” that canines do.

• Goats are capable of having individual personalities. Goats that are less sociable are better capable of performing mental and physical tasks than their more sociable counterparts. This may be due to their increased ability to not get distracted by other goats.

• Goats see purples, blues and greens the best. They can also see oranges and yellows, but they are red-green colorblind.

• A goat's eyes will rotate widely within its sockets, allowing its pupils to stay aligned with the ground, no matter which direction his/her head is pointing.

This content posted by Goats on the Roof of the Smoky Mountains. Visit our home page, goatsontheroofofthesmokies.com for more information on the goats and their coaster.

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