I took a drive yesterday looking for lambs to photograph and struck out again. I did see some goats, however. This kid was with its mother and two siblings. The kids moved away as I approached them, but the mother had no fear of me. She put as much of her head through the woven wire fence as she could, probably hoping for a treat.
Goats are closely related to sheep. They reach puberty as early as three months. While they have been used for their milk, meat, hair and sinew for eons, they have become popular as pets in recent times.
Goats are browsers, like deer, not grazers like sheep and cattle. They have a reputation for eating almost anything including tin cans and cardboard, but they are fairly particular about what they actually eat. They are very curious and that appears to be what causes them to eat the labels off of tin cans and to taste cardboard. Their curiosity and intelligence make them very difficult to contain. They will constantly test enclosures and often mange to escape. They are also very good climbers like their wild cousins.
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I’ll never forget a boyhood friend’s goat who ate a bumper sticker off my pick-up truck. I remember seeing sheep and lambs on the stretch of Hwy. 116 between Duncans Mills and Jenner, but that was years ago. They might have given up on sheep since then. Where do you like to look for them?
I haven’t driven that stretch of road John. Long ago I remember seeing them north of Jenner along the coast. There are several herds of sheep along Lakeville Highway, but no newborn lambs. I’ve also driven some roads west of Petaluma without any luck. I’m wondering if it’s too late. They don’t stay “newborn” for long.
Hey Jim, Sure is a CUTE KID, thanks for all the info on goats, probably would never have read
about them, but because of this (cute pic) now I have. Charlotte
Thanks Charlotte. One other interesting fact I read about them is that they can revert to the wild more easily than other farm animals. Seems to me though that horses and pigs are pretty good at that also.