Goat tongue

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World's first cloned goat

Noori, a cloned Pashmina goat, is seen inside the sheep breeding center at Sher-e-Kashmir University in Kashmir, India, on March 14. The healthy female kid was born March 9 using a foster mother.

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Video: Happy jumping baby goat

(via The Daily What)

Smile, it's Friday!

Photo from uniquedaily

Back from the dead (briefly)

An extinct mountain goat that was once common in the Pyrenees briefly became the first animal to be brought back from extinction, as researchers used frozen DNA to produce a clone. But the newborn kid died within minutes of birth due to breathing difficulties. The Pyrenean ibex, or bucardo, is a subspecies of the Spanish ibex that is believed to have died out completely in 2000. Before the death of the last known individual (a 13-year-old female known as Celia), biologists captured her and took cells from her skin and ears, which were frozen in liquid nitrogen. An earlier cloning attempt using the skin cells failed during gestation. But the latest attempt involved the creation of 439 ibex-goat hybrid cloned embryos made by inserting the cell nuclei of the ibex’s skin cells into the egg cells of domestic goats which had their own cell nuclei removed. Of these cloned embryos, 57 were transferred into surrogate mothers and seven resulted in pregnancies, but only one goat gave birth and the newborn clone died after seven minutes as a result of lung deformities. Source: Discover

Arnold's Halloween

Thanks to Penny for this great photo!

Cheap labor in LA

They will work long hours over the next week to 10 days and won't collect a pension or charge for working overtime and won't call in sick - and 100 of these laborers cost only $3,000. The cost of human workers would have totaled as much as $7,500. Leaders of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency have hired 100 goats to nibble away thick weeds on a steep slope on a weed-choked lot in the Bunker Hill high-rise district. An electrified fence helps corral the goats and keeps them from falling over a retaining wall at the base of the slope. Security guards will be on duty when goat-keeper George Gonzales is not there to watch over the herd. Source: L.A.Times (via: L.A. Unleashed)

No kidding!

Police thought they had a goat surrounded after it was spotted going the wrong way on the Cross Island Parkway. An ambulance and fire engine blocked traffic Monday while sheriff's deputies tried to corral the animal on the Charles E. Fraser Bridge, but she jumped. Fire Battalion Chief Cliff Steedley told The Island Packet of Hilton Head Island the frightened goat plunged as much as 50 feet into Broad Creek. Rescuers borrowed a boat to get the 70-pound nanny out of the waist-deep pluff mud as it worked its way through the marsh. One firefighter got stuck in the mud and had to be rescued. Veterinarian Frank Murphy said the goat was fine after the smelly mud was washed off and there has been at least one offer to adopt it.

Billy the boxer adopts a kid

Billy the boxer has become the constant companion of the 12-day old kid called Lilly. He sleeps with the goat, licks her clean, and protects her from any dangers at Pennywell Farm wildlife centre at Buckfastleigh, near Totnes, Devon. The unusual bond has developed over the last month and the pair are now inseparable. Source: the Daily Mail

Arnold's Christmas

Thanks to Penny for this great photo!

Airline sacrifices goats to appease sky god

Officials at Nepal's state-run airline have sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft, the carrier said Tuesday. The goats were sacrificed in front of the troublesome aircraft Sunday at Nepal's only international airport in Kathmandu in accordance with Hindu traditions, an official said. "The snag in the plane has now been fixed and the aircraft has resumed its flights," said Raju K.C., a senior airline official, without explaining what the problem had been.

Was there a gift receipt?

In the movie "The Godfather," a horse's head was used to intimidate, and that's what Milwaukee police said they think is behind the discovery of a bloody goat's head at an attorney's office. Prominent Milwaukee-area defense attorney Robin Shellow has represented hundreds of clients, many of them convicted criminals, reported WISN-TV in Milwaukee. So, the list of people who may have an ax to grind is long. Milwaukee police said they are taking Monday's discovery outside Shellow's office very seriously. The severed head of a goat was found near the corner of the building stuffed inside a pink gift bag. A note, which police described as threatening, was in the goat's mouth. It contained a name, but apparently not the name of a suspect.

UW Campus uses goats for grounds maintenance

The University of Washington needed to clear a 10,000-square-feet hillside overgrown with blackberry bushes and English ivy. Because the area was so steep, it would have been difficult for gardeners to work in the area safely, so the department contracted the work to Rent-A-Ruminant, a Vashon-based company that supplies goats to do heavy munching. Goats, which have a four-stomach digestive system, are able to process the tough fibers of many pesky plants.

Bleating back the weeds

Across the dry grasslands of California's valleys and foothills, goats are gaining recognition as an effective weapon to cut the risk of rampaging wildfires and to check the spread of nonnative weeds such as star thistle. Goats don't have the drawbacks of chemical sprays, and they have a sweet tooth for weeds and other noxious plants that other grazing animals shun, say boosters of the practice. Between bouts of jumping into the air and butting heads, the young goats swarm through the weeds, grazing on dry grass, chewing the bark of manzanita trees and reaching high on two legs to munch on the leaves of taller trees. The 49 adult goats and 30 youngsters belong to Dave Cheney, who has operated Pine Ridge Goats since 2001. Cheney trucks the animals into an area to be cleared, sets up a temporary electric fence, arms it with a truck battery and puts the goats to work on the weeds. His goats are Kikos, a hardy breed developed in New Zealand. Beyond what they eat on their own, they get a dessert of farm-grown hay at the end of the day, when he uses it to entice the goats into their pens.

Albino Mountain Goat Spotted in Italy

Forest rangers in the northern Italian Alps have confirmed for the first time the existence of an albino mountain goat - and named him "Snowflake." Rangers took photos of the albino capra ibex climbing with its mother at about 10,000 feet above the Les Laures valley in the northwestern Val d'Aosta region, said Christian Chioso, a regional wildlife official. "This is the only one ever documented, the only one ever seen," Chioso said. Albinism is rare in any species and has not been previously documented among the capra ibex, a type of wild mountain goat with large curved horns that lives in mountainous areas. Chioso estimated the albino animal is about a year old.