by Maeve O'Connell (7th)
There are many different kinds of goats, and the following three are just a small fraction of the kinds of species there are in the world, whether they faint, or not. You can find goats in many different kinds of places than just a farm. They can be used for improving your mental and physical health, through goat yoga! The whole idea of goat yoga is to relax, and doing it with goats provides people with a great way to just have fun and decompress.
Arapawa Goats:
These goats aren’t very well known, and that’s because they’re extremely endangered, it’s believed that there may be 500 or fewer of these goats left. They originated in New Zealand around 1600, they were found on the island of Arapawa, and that’s where they got their names.
Eventually, the New Zealand Forest Service decided that the native forest was being damaged, and the goats had to be removed. When explorer Captain James Cook released two goats onto the island of Arapawa island in
1773, but another explorer returned in 1839, and returned to report that the island was full of goats.
Pygmy Goats:
These adorable little goats are friendly, and considered perfect family pets due to their calm nature. They are called pygmy goats because of their small build, they only grow up to between 16 to 23 inches tall, and from 53-86 pounds depending on their gender!
You can find these adorable little goats on farms anywhere, but they actually originated in West Africa, that’s why they were originally called the Cameroon Dwarf Goat! Though, their name adapted over time and was changed to the Pygmy goat due to their petite size.
Myotonic Goats:
We’ve all seen goats before, whether it’s at a petting zoo, or at a farm, but have you ever seen a fainting goat? This breed of goat is native to North America, and they’re known as the Myotonic goats, or just Fainting goats. They fall to the ground on their side, or back with all of their limbs sticking out straight!
Their condition is called Myotonia congenita, and causes their tetanic muscles to contract, which makes them fall over in this specific way. These goats have become considered endangered, but there is hope that these goats will recover and gain more numbers. This condition can cause an amount of distress for the goat, as it makes it unable to run away from something that scares it, even though it is usually only left in this position for a couple seconds.
Image Citation: "Types of Goat Breeds." Antal, Laura. TreeHugger. 2022. https://www.treehugger.com/goat-breeds-1238872