Favorite Images of Goats

A list of my favorite images of goats.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat

The domestic goat (Capra aegagrus hircus) is a sub-species of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe.

The goat is a member of the family Bovidae and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae.

There are over 300 distinct breeds of goat. Goats are one of the oldest domesticated species and have been used for their milk, meat, hair and skins over much of the world.

Most goats naturally have two horns of various shapes and sizes depending on the breed.

Each recognized breed of goats has specific weight ranges, which vary from over 140 kg (300 lb) for bucks of larger breeds such as the Boer, to 20 to 27 kg (45 to 60 lb) for smaller goat does.

Within each breed, different strains or bloodlines may have different recognized sizes. At the bottom of the size range are miniature breeds such as the African Pigmy, which stand 41 to 58 cm (16 to 23 in) at the shoulder as adults.

Goats are ruminants. They have a four-chambered stomach consisting of the rumen, the reticulum, the omasum and the abomasum. As with other mammal ruminants, they are even-toed ungulates.

Goats have horizontal, slit-shaped pupils. Because goats' irises are usually pale, their contrasting pupils are much more noticeable than in animals such as cattle, deer, most horses and many sheep, whose similarly horizontal pupils blend into a dark iris and sclera. This adaptation allows goats to see at least 320 degrees around their heads with no blind spot in front of them.

Both male and female goats have beards and many types of goat (most commonly dairy goats, dairy-cross Boers and pygmy goats) may have wattles, one dangling from each side of the neck.

Some breeds of sheep and goats look similar but they can usually be told apart because goat tails are short and usually point up, whereas sheep tails hang down and are usually longer and bigger – though some (like those of Northern European short-tailed sheep) are short and longer ones are often docked.

Female goats are referred to as "does" or "nannies", intact males as "bucks", "billies" or "rams" and their offspring are "kids". Castrated males are "wethers".

In 2011, there were more than 924 million live goats around the globe, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

Goat meat from younger animals is called "kid" or cabrito (Spanish) and from older animals is simply known as "goat" or sometimes called chevon (French), or in some areas "mutton" (which more often refers to adult sheep meat).