You’ll find many things in goats that are quite fascinating. They’re probably not as iconic as the other domestic animals like horses and cows. Neither are they as exotic as the creatures shown in documentaries, such as tigers and deer. Perhaps, this is why they’re often overlooked. Despite this, goats can do some impressive things like climbing mountains better than some expert human climbers.
You’ll be quite surprised by a lesser-known talent that some goats possess. This is their talent for climbing trees, even the taller ones. They not only climb these trees but can also stand on small branches. While watching them stand on such branches, you might fear that they’ll. This is because it often appears as though the small branches can barely hold their weight.
This phenomenon of goats climbing trees is particularly common in Morocco, a country in North Africa. There’s not much vegetation in this country and food for goats can be scarce. However, there’s a fruit produced by the argan trees that’s a favourite among goats. So, these goats climb the argan trees to relish this fruit.
The fascinating sight of goats climbing argan trees
There are places in arid regions where not much forage is available for goats. It is this scarcity that takes goats to places that seem impossible to reach. If the top of the trees is where greenery is available, they’ll get there somehow. The argan trees bear fruits that the goats like to eat. So, they’ll eat all the fruits fallen on the ground from these trees.
When they’ve gobbled up the fruits on the ground, they’ll get to the top of the trees for food. It’s an incredible sight to behold for people. These tree-climbing goats also do something good for the trees in this process. They become the agents of seed dispersal, which is important for the growth of new trees.
How the goats disperse seeds by climbing the trees
You might’ve heard about animals ingesting fruits and then dropping the seeds elsewhere. They do this after carrying those seeds in their stomachs for some time. Now, a new study has found that there’s something else that goes on in this regard. This particular aspect has not been researched much. It is the fact that goats spit out seeds of fruits after ruminating.
The very intention of the new study was to find out whether it’s true. Many of the researchers thought that excreting large seeds is not usually possible. So, they wanted to verify whether the goats spat out the seeds of argan fruits while ruminating. They were convinced that this could be a possible mechanism for the dispersal of large seeds.
The other species that are seed spitters
The fallow deer and captive red deer in southern parts of Spain also spit out seeds during rumination. The cows in Brazil are also believed to have this habit of spitting out seeds while ruminating at night. Researchers have suggested that spitting seeds could have significant ecological relevance.
Many of them doubt the survival of seeds through the rumination process. Thus, further studies have been suggested to investigate this dispersal mechanism. It would also help the researchers to know the effectiveness of this mechanism in different habitats.