Goats and humans have a long and productive history together. Over the millennia, we’ve found a range of interesting uses for these incredible animals—which are also capable of some unbelievable feats of their own. To celebrate National Dairy Goat Awareness Week, here are 15 amazing facts about goats.
1. GOATS WERE ONE OF—IF NOT THE—FIRST ANIMALS TO BE DOMESTICATED.
The great goat domestication took place about 11,000 years ago in the Near East. The event was a pivotal moment in human history that represented a key shift of mankind from hunter-gatherers to agriculture-based societies.
2. GOATS WERE AMONG THE FIRST ANIMALS TO BE BROUGHT TO AMERICA.
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3. GOAT POPULARITY SURGED FOLLOWING THE 1904 WORLD’S FAIR IN ST. LOUIS.
The fair was host to the first dairy goat show in America as well as an exhibit featuring 300 Angora goats, the most ever shown at one time. With their heavy coats of curly mohair, the Angoras drew swarms of fans to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and increased national recognition for the breed.
4. GIVING BIRTH IS CALLED “KIDDING.”
You may know that a baby goat is called a kid, but did you know that, because of that, a goat giving birth is said to be “kidding”? We’re not … joking.
5. GOATS DON’T HAVE TEETH ON THEIR UPPER JAW.
Instead, they just have a strong dental pad. They do, however, have an incredibly mobile upper lip that helps them to sort through spiny, thorny twigs to find plants’ tender leaves.
5. GOATS HAVE FOUR STOMACHS.
The four-chambered stomach helps goats digest tough roughage like 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.
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