Goats and Fences

Several years ago, I was hiking the hills behind Grand Case when I noticed a young goat caught with its head stuck in a wire fence (1st photo). It had stuck its head through to eat something, but couldn’t get out because of its horns. Although it was very afraid by my approach, I was able to free the young goat and it bounded away. It did make me wonder how goats normally get out from such a predicament.

A little bit later, I found a larger goat (2nd photo) with the same problem. I thought that if this happened to two goats in the same area on the same day, then they must have a way to get out. Otherwise, basically all goats would be stuck this way most of the time. I decided to leave him and then see if he was still there on my way back.

A little bit later, I found a goat skeleton with the head on one side of the fence and the rest of the skeleton on the other side (3rd photo). Apparently, this situation does not always get resolved. I ended up taking a different route on the way back, so I never saw how the 2nd goat was doing.

I puzzled over this for a year or more, until I happened to be having breakfast with one of the people who owns this property and the goats. I explained what I saw, and he told me, simply: “We go up there every two days.”

At any rate, although it isn’t wildlife-related per se, I thought it was an interesting problem, and the ability to enclose goats definitely has a big impact on the vegetation of the island. If every two days is the optimal rescue window balancing effort and goat survival, it also probably tells us something about how well goats can handle dehydration.