The feral goat ought to be cherished
Be caught killing a swan and you’ll make a guest appearance on the Nine O’clock News, emerging from court with a coat over your head, to the mortification of your socially ostracised nearest and dearest. Mallard and woodpigeons are a step down from swans in the wildlife social hierarchy. They are fully accredited members of our wild fauna, but you are allowed to knock them out of the sky with the blessing of the law. Pheasants have even lower status. They are, after all, mere blow-ins, glorified farmyard chickens imported for sport, their numbers replenished by releases of hand-reared birds.
In a wildlife version of India, rats and mice would be classed as ‘untouchables’, so low in the pecking order as to be outside the caste system altogether. Found guilty, in their absence, of revolting crimes, they have been sentenced to death. Such ingratitude! Brown rats certainly carry disease, but few of us would be here today were it not for them. Outbreaks of plague used to occur in Ireland, killing large numbers of people. The disease was carried by fleas, which lived in the fur of the black rat. Then, in the 18th Century, the larger brown rat arrived from the East. It ousted the black rat and plagues no longer occur.
The feral goat, on the other hand, is a harmless creature, but it too is excluded from the wildlife social order. The term ‘feral’, from ‘ferus’ the Latin for ‘wild’, denotes a creature which was once tame but which has returned to the wild state. About 5,000 feral goats roam the mountains and islands of Ireland. Being descended from escaped livestock, their status is anomalous; they are not persecuted, just ignored. But things are changing; Tom Hayden and Rory Harrington in their Exploring Irish Mammals treat feral goats as full members of our wild fauna and so does Juanita Browne in Ireland’s Mammals.
In fact, goats have as good a wildlife pedigree as deer. Two of our three deer species are Johnnie-come-latelys. The sika was introduced to Wicklow about a century ago, while the fallow arrived with the Normans. Our third species is often referred to as the ‘native’ red deer, but there is some doubt as to whether it is, in fact, native. The oldest red deer bones, found so far, date from 4,000 years ago, long after the last landbridge between Ireland and Britain had disappeared. Red deer are good swimmers, so it is just about possible that they swam over from Scotland. However, it seems more likely that deer were brought in by Neolithic or Bronze Age people, as a quarry species to hunt.
The feral goat’s presence in Ireland is just as ancient as that of the red deer. Bones, about 4,000 years old, have been unearthed by archaeologists. Of course, not all of our wild goats are descended from the original introduced stock. Different varieties were imported over the centuries, as the many colours and horn shapes of today’s animals indicate. But these additions should not impair the feral goat’s claim to full wildlife status. There were several introductions of red deer and yet it remains the iconic Irish wild animal. Only the deer in the Killarney herd can claim to be descended from the original stock.
Deer and goats are distant cousins and their lifestyles have much in common. Both have super-efficient four-chambered stomachs, which can digest the toughest vegetation. Stags and billy-goats establish harems of females and fight off rivals which challenge them. But, whereas a stag sheds its antlers every year, a billy does not. Goat horns have annual growth rings and it is possible to tell an animal’s age by counting them. Nanny-goats, the females, sometimes have horns, whereas female deer never have them. Billies have beards, which they lather with urine as a turn-on for females. Deer don’t go in for beards; they just squirt urine onto their bellies for added fragrance.
Mountains and arid places, where other hoofed animals couldn’t eke out a living, are the realm of goats. With spongy pads on the base of the feet, they have extraordinary climbing skills. So sure-footed are they, that goats will venture onto rock faces where no other large animal would dream of going. There is one threat, however, against which they have no defence; the Alpine ibex can be swept away by avalanches.
Goats have been domesticated for 9,000 years. Although they hailed originally from Europe and Asia, they are now found all over the world. There are thought to be about 400 million of them, some 200 domestic breeds. They give us milk, cheese and rugs. Their most prestigious products are mohair, with its dense texture, and the exquisitely soft Cashmere wool. Bodhráns are made from goatskin and the French horn, now a brass instrument, retains the name of its goat horn ancestor.
Europe has three wild goat species. The Alpine ibex was hunted almost to extinction, until only one herd, that of the Gran Paradiso National Park in Italy, remained. It was reintroduced to Switzerland, where almost 4,000 animals are descended from 34 individuals. The Spanish ibex survives in the mountains of Iberia. A distinctive race of goat, found in Crete, is believed to be descended from animals introduced there in Neolithic times. Watch out for the Cretan wild goat if you visit the wonderful Samaria Gorge.