WANT to know more about the goat you are busy playing with these days? Then read on to discover some amazing goatie facts!

• The scientific name for the domestic goat is capra aegagrus hircus. It is a member of the family Bovidae and of the same subfamily caprinae as the sheep.

• Males are called billy or buck.

• Females are called nanny or doe.

• The baby goat is called a kid.

• A group of goats is called a ‘trip of goats’.

• Goats generally live 10 to 12 years, and some even up to 15 years.

Eyes

• Goats have excellent night vision and this is thanks to their rectangular pupil instead of being round like most animals.

Teeth

• Goats only have a lower set of teeth which meet a hard pad in the upper jaw, and 24 molars on the top and bottom in the back of their mouths.

• Kids have eight small, sharp teeth in their lower front jaw. These fall off to be replaced by permanent teeth, and this is why the age of a goat can be determined by their teeth.

Vocalisation

• Goats communicate with each other by bleating, making a “baaah” sound.

• Goats will bleat when stressed, hungry, or calling for attention from keepers. Does (females) also bleat to call their kids.

Eating habit

• Goats have very sensitive lips and this makes them very selective eaters — they do not eat food that is soiled.

• Goats spend many hours everyday re-chewing the food they have eaten.

• They have four stomachs and they eat a wide variety of shrubs, woody plants, weeds, and desert scrub and aromatic herbs.

Milk

• Each breed of dairy goat gives a different tasting milk.

• The flavour of goat milk can be affect by many things, both the food it has eaten and the chemicals in the air.

Breed

• There are over 300 distinct breeds of goat.

• One of the smallest are the pygmy goat or the Cameroon dwarf goat, weighing about 20 pounds, with a height range of 16 to 23 inches. They are native to West Africa.

• Among the largest is Anglo-Nubian, weighing up to 250 pounds and markhor.

• The Ibex, a wild goat, is found throughout Europe, Asia and Africa.

Markhor

• The king of goats, the markhor weighs between 200 — 220 pounds and its height at the shoulders is an incredible 42 inches.

• Its very prominent horns can reach up to 1.6 metres, which it uses to fight off enemies.

• The stocky male has a black beard and a shaggy mane of long dark hair that hangs down from the neck.

• It is incredibly alert and nimble, defying gravity as it climbs rocks. It lives is in one of the toughest regions of the world — mostly in the Northern Areas of Pakistan and the rugged mountains of central Asia.

• Markhors live at altitudes of 1,600 to 11,000 feet, spending the summer at higher altitudes and winter at lower altitudes.

• Markhor is the national animal of Pakistan

The Angora goat

• This breed of domestic goat gets its name from Ankara, Turkey, which was historically known as Angora.

• These goats produce the lustrous fibre known as mohair that is highly sought-after for its strong elastic fibre and is far smoother and more lustrous than wool.

• Their meat is nutritious and low in cholesterol.

Cashmere goats

• Cashmere goats are natives of the Himalayas and are believed to have migrated with Chinese herders to Mongolia, Tibet and Northern provinces of China.

• Cashmere goats produce a double fleece where the outer coat or guard hair is straighter and coarser and the undercoat is fine, soft and light.

• Marco Polo brought cashmere to Italy and it soon became very popular with the aristocratic class.

The coffee discoverers

Do you know that we have to thank goats for discovering coffee?

Yes, there is a legend that Kaldi, an Ethiopian goat herder, was grazing his goats on a mountainside. He saw the goats eating a tall bush with shiny green leaves and red berries. And soon after he noticed that the goats became very active, full of energy.

Taking cue from the goats, he decided to try the berries himself and after he had them he felt wide awake and full of energy. Soon the word spread to his tribe and eventually to the rest of the world.