Animal Profiles: The Gentlemen Goats
Fig was our first male goat, as a bottle baby utterly terrified of people. He would do whatever it took to get away from me, even when he desperately wanted the bottle. He was born out in a large pasture full of goats, and hadn’t had much contact with humans when he was caught and put in the back of my van. You would never know that now! Fig is one of our most sociable, friendly goats. He will even walk away from food to get loved on by someone, which can be difficult when we put food out as a distraction. It is quite difficult to get new photos of him. They all end up being extreme closeups.
While Fig was originally to be the founding stud of our farm, we discovered that he is not a purebred Nigerian Dwarf. You know those fainting goats that everyone loves to watch on YouTube? Yeah, he faints when he gets surprised enough. We wethered (neutered) him, and now his only job is being a social dude with our visitors, a job he excels at.
After Fig ended up being a bust as a billy goat, we brought home Basil. He is one stinky guy sometimes, but he is incredibly handsome, so we put up with the smell. Did you know that a buck will pee on their beard to attract the ladies? Yep, boys are gross. Another fun fact, when goats lift their upper lip like in that photo of Young Basil, they are using a special organ to transfer pheromones in the air into a special organ on the roof of their mouth. It’s called a flehmen response, and a lot of animals do it, including horses and cats.
Basil is the ringleader when it comes to making trouble. If there is a weakness in the fence, he will find it every time, and lead all the other goats willing to follow him on a merry adventure. He’s friendly enough, but would generally rather go on walkabout, or hang with his girls, rather than seek out people. He does enjoy scratches, but we don’t give him scratches on the face, for the aforementioned beard reasons.
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