The first mention of goats in Scripture relates to their role in the Old Testament sacrificial system. Bulls, rams, goats, sheep and doves were sacrificed to God, in some cases interchangeably, for atonement and in worship. At the same time, goats were given a special symbolic role in the rituals established by God for the annual day of purification. In these rituals and in several other places in Scripture, goats primarily served as a symbol of sin, its consequences and the need to be cleansed from it and receive forgiveness.
God commanded the Israelites to cleanse the people from all sins once a year in order to be pure before the Lord (). On the tenth day of the seventh month, the high priest was to take with him into the Most Holy Place a young bull to offer a sin offering for himself and his family, two goats to offer a sacrifice for the sins of the people, and two rams for a burnt offering. On the day of atonement, goats played a unique and symbolic role: the priest cast lots and selected one goat “for the Lord” and another “for the scapegoat” (). The first goat was sacrificed, its blood was brought into the Holy of Holies, and the body was burned outside the camp. In the New Testament Epistle to the Hebrews, Jesus is symbolically depicted as suffering “outside the gates” in order to take upon ourselves our sins (). But by offering Himself as a perfect sacrifice for sin, Jesus thereby put an end to sacrifices and sat down forever at the right hand of God ().
The high priest left the second goat alive before the Lord, laid his hands on its head and confessed all the sins of the Israelites over it, transferring them to the goat’s head, and then sent it into the desert (). This scapegoat, taking away with it all the sins of the people, became a symbol of Christ, Who took upon Himself our sins in order to remove them as far away as “as the east is from the west” (). The picture of substitutionary atonement in the form of these humble goats is quite attractive and holy, although more consistently the symbolism of Scripture links the death of Christ with the offering of the lamb as a trespass offering and with the Passover sacrifice.
Elsewhere in Scripture, goats are shown to be more wild in nature than sheep. For example, they are often depicted galloping through the mountains or walking ahead of the herd (; (“chamois”); (“shaggy”);). In Daniel's prophetic vision, a large goat, symbolizing a powerful empire, walked across the face of the entire earth without touching it, and moved towards a huge horned ram (another empire), knocked it down and trampled it ().
We see perhaps the most famous biblical image of goats in Jesus’ parable about the sheep and the goats (). The Shepherd (see SHEEP) in the person of the Son of Man separates the blessed (sheep) from the cursed (goats). The essence of the parable is the inevitability of judgment based on the disposition of the heart and lifestyle of each person. Jesus' listeners must have been familiar with the image of a large herd of hundreds or even thousands of different animals grazing together. The process of separating one kind from another for their branding, breeding and sacrifice occurred constantly.
Ezekiel also uses the image of selection to depict judgment: the distinction between “a sheep and a sheep, between a ram and a goat” symbolizes for him God’s judgment on Israel for its unrighteous attitude towards the poor and needy (). Both Jesus and Ezekiel speak of love for the rest of the flock, particularly the need to share water and food with the weak and meek, those with whom the shepherd identifies.
However, in the picture Ezekiel paints, there are good and bad sheep, as well as rams and goats. In the New Testament picture, the sheep are saved, but the goats perish. In Jesus' parable about the Day of Judgment, God does not judge the people of Israel, but singles them out from all His peoples (). Ezekiel prophesied about the Shepherd and His sheep (). His flock will ultimately consist only of the sheep that belong to Him, that is, those who follow Him. The goats symbolize all the others mixed with the herd, whom the Shepherd does not recognize as His own.
Thus, in Scripture, goats are somehow associated with sin. (And today the word is used to express disdain.) In the sacrificial system, goats were the bearers of sin, and in Jesus' parable they symbolize those whose sins were not forgiven. Biblical imagery of the goat illustrates the human need for forgiveness of sin.
Lest we think that goats are presented in the Bible as clearly and irredeemably bad animals, let us recall an additional motif arising from the fact that goat hair was used to produce valuable clothing (as cashmere is made from goat hair today). The covers in the tabernacle were made of goat's hair (; cf.). In addition, we note that the enthusiastic lover of the Song of Songs complimented him by comparing his beloved’s hair to “a herd of goats coming down from Mount Gilead” (). This may, of course, be a simple visual image of hair flowing or blowing in the wind, but it is more likely that the beloved's hair is compared to its most valuable counterpart in the natural world.
See also: LAMB, ANIMALS, SCAPEGOAT, SHEEP, HORN, Flock.
The younger generation of our herd is growing up. The goats are already a year old. In the fall it will be one and a half.
It's time to think about their offspring.
The main question is who else will participate in procreation?
How we grow the future manufacturer
According to our established practice, we raise the sire goat ourselves. We feed him plenty of milk so that he grows strong and healthy.
Our hope - a Saanen goat and future breeder - appeared to us at the age of three days. He immediately fell into an atmosphere of care and affection, and instantly responded to us with the most tender and devoted love.
He immediately recognized me as his mother. I feed him. He literally never left my side.
I wash the dishes and lay them down at my feet. I sit down and asks to be held in my arms. I leave the room - a piercing scream rises. I take him in my arms and gently poke him in the face with his muzzle. A very gentle and sociable creature!
He is so tiny that I simply call him “Little”. You call him that and he runs as fast as he can. It is very pleasant to feed him from a pacifier.
We are waiting for the kid to get stronger so that we can take it to the barn. I'm very sorry to have to take it away. There is practically no hassle with him, but a lot of joy.
But there is a danger of keeping it in the house. The longer he lives with us, the more difficult it will be to settle down in the barn later.
It's time to introduce the kid to the new herd
So, at the age of two weeks, it was time to take the kid to the barn. I'm worried. He's going to be under a lot of stress.
Life in the house completely erased the memories of the few days after birth. Therefore, getting to know goats and life in a barn will not be easy. In addition, the most important problem remains to be solved - finding him a new mother goat.
The first time we took a trip to the barn just to introduce him to the goats.
I carry him in my arms. I let him run around from time to time.
The little goat is in nature for the first time in his life. Anyone here will get confused.
We arrived at the barn, in the milking department. Local cats are quite friendly, and most importantly, familiar. The little goat interacted a lot with our domestic cat Kusya. He immediately lay down to rest from the impressions received on the road.
But there was no need to rest for long. He must find his new goat mother, who will agree to adopt him.
Once we start milking the goats on the machine, we place it next to each goat. First, he must understand how he is supposed to get milk from now on. Secondly, we look at the reaction of the goats.
Not every goat allows the goat to drink her milk. Some turn around to butt, or strive to jump off the machine. But several goats react completely calmly. Hooray!
If not mothers, then they will definitely be nurses. Our baby won't go hungry.
The first lesson ended successfully. The goat learned to kiss the udder, although not right away. We have identified the nurse goats. We hope that one of them will later become the goat’s mother.
The herd does not immediately accept the baby
Another test awaited us. We had to introduce the goat to the herd. We foresaw the reaction.
A herd of goats is a completely closed community. There are only our own people here. Any alien goat is unanimously expelled by everyone.
Kids can hope for some leniency. But the meeting still turned out to be tough.
Poor baby!
I grab him in my arms and carry him into the empty barn. Let him get used to it.
In the cat's barn. The goat forgot his grudges and began to play happily with them. True, just in case, they pretended that they had no time. And everyone ran away. Then the goat consoled himself with oat grains, tasting it for the first time in his life. It turned out to be delicious!
On this positive note, we ended the first day of meeting and took the baby home. He was so tired that he slept on his usual rug for the rest of the day.
Sleep, baby! Everything is fine, the hardest part is over!
There is a new little goat in the herd - a future sire
It has been proven that goats were one of the first ruminants domesticated by humans about 10 thousand years ago, which is obviously due to the natural sociability of goats. Biologists and interdisciplinary researchers around the world are making every effort to determine the level of intelligence of animals.
Much of the research initially focused on primates, but is now also focusing on dogs and goats. This is due to the fact that these animals are social, actively interact with people, easily understand human gestures, and recognize human intonation.
It is believed that all these features are acquired and are the result of domestication.
Goats' curiosity and ability to learn are extremely developed. They actively explore their environment, often using their horns as research tools, which goats use when the opportunity arises. It is clear that goats are capable of learning from their own experience and, thanks to their natural powers of observation, from the experiences of other goats and humans.
Goats easily remember repetitive processes and adapt to them. Queens have remarkable social competence, which is especially noticeable during the lambing period.
Matriarchy is often observed in a herd of goats; the main goat of the herd is either the oldest or the strongest goat; in any case, it must be highly intelligent. The hierarchical structure of the goat herd dates back to long before domestication and has remained virtually unchanged since those times, this is due to the fact that it is beneficial to humans, since a well-organized herd is much easier to manage. The main goat of the herd is usually strong, in good physical shape, because she has a great responsibility for protecting the herd, the leading queen is always attentive, in case of danger she must give a warning signal to the herd. The guiding queen directs the herd to the best pastures and watering holes.
She is the first to drink, and the places with the best grass also go to her and her kids. Also, the dominant uterus determines the place and time for rest. In a large herd there is always an alpha and a betta group, the leader of the alpha group leads the entire herd. Every year after lambing, the goats find out who will be the leader of the herd in the new year. Therefore, the leading goat of the herd may change from year to year. It is interesting to note that after being overthrown, the previous head of the herd watches the new main queen for several weeks and, if weaknesses are detected in her, tries to regain her dominant position.
With the establishment of the unconditional leadership of the new queen, the old one becomes her adviser, and in case of illness, the leader of the queen temporarily assumes the powers of the leader. If the authority of the main goat of the herd is indisputable, then at lower levels of small alpha, betta and other groups there are almost daily clashes to clarify relationships and rank among goats.
Despite the clear division of the herd into the leader, alpha and betta groups, the leader goat can be friends with one or a pair of goats from the betta and other groups of lower rank.
Some goats have established strong mother-daughter bonds, where throughout their lives the queen is in close friendship with her daughters, distinguishing them from other goats. But the majority of goats, after weaning their kids, only express their bitterness of loss for a short period of time by screaming and refusing to feed, and after introducing young animals into the main herd, such goats do not recognize their daughters and treat them the same way as other replacement goats, giving absolutely no privileges.
In exceptional cases, the meeting of a mother goat with her grown-up daughter is a truly heartbreaking picture:
mother and daughter carefully look and sniff each other, then joy sets in on both sides, which is impossible not to see. Mother and daughter exchange affection at every opportunity; while resting and chewing gum, they lie as close to each other as possible. In such relationships, it does not matter at all that the mother goat belongs to the alpha group, and her daughter is at the lowest level of the hierarchy. One can also observe close friendships between brothers and sisters despite their different hierarchical levels. Geminis often maintain such relationships throughout their lives.
It is important to note that the aggressive behavior of leading queens towards goats of lower groups does not manifest itself in situations that could lead to death. For example, during lambing in the general herd of the queen of the lowest hierarchical level, no one offends her; all the goats modestly huddle in the farthest corner until lambing, and only after the kids are born do they approach her. You can also pay attention to the fact that if the shed for resting goats is too small, then only queens from the alpha group rest inside it, but during hurricane winds, heavy rain, hail or snowstorms, they allow low-ranking queens under the shed and do not offend them , and all together, huddled closely together, wait out the bad weather.
When predators (fox, wolf, dog) appear on the horizon, the goats immediately stand in a circle, inside which there are kids, and tilt their heads and put their horns forward. In this dangerous situation, personal hostility among the goats is also forgotten and they act as one united team.
Goats interact with each other and with humans mainly through body language. Goats are also capable of communicating through sound signals, but goats bleat mainly in moments of dissatisfaction. The reasons for bleating can be: a failure in the feeding and milking regimes, the leading female has taken the resting place of a lower-ranking queen, during heavy rain or in moments of loneliness, when for some reason the goat was isolated from the main herd.
The voice of the queens before lambing, during it and after the appearance of the kids is melodic, quiet and calm. Newborn goats remember this voice from the first seconds of their lives and will never forget it. So, after returning from the milking parlor to the room where there are about 60 of their kids, the queen only needs about 2 minutes to search for her babies. The kids recognize the queens by their voice and quickly find them. If a goat is in trouble, in a hopeless situation, for example, stuck in a fence or tangled in a rope, then its bleats become hysterical, so heartbreaking that the dogs in the area begin to howl.
The sounds made by goats are more diverse; this can be observed especially well during the rutting period, when goats actively care for the queens in heat. The rest of the year, goats are mostly silent. More universal is the body language of goats. An important indicator of joy or positive excitement is wagging the tail. For example, when kids suck milk from their mother's udder, they often wag their tail. Queens in heat also begin to happily wag their tails at the sight of a goat. After prolonged downpours, with the opportunity to graze again, the goats happily run outside, wagging their tails.
Their ears, whose mobility is ensured by 12 muscles, say a lot about the mood of goats.
Therefore, you can tell a lot about a goat’s mood by the position of its ears:
- Puts its ears back - the goat is suspicious of you and is aggressive.
- The ears stand upright - everything is fine.
- Ears hanging limply at the sides indicate that the goat is relaxed during the resting period.
- The animal is sick or feels unwell - the ears hang down.
- The ears stand up and are directed slightly forward - the goat is surprised and tries to understand what is happening.
Snorting and stomping your foot is the last step before an attack and the last attempt to gain decent self-respect. To impress the enemy, the goat stands on its hind legs, stretches its neck and lands with a roar on its front legs. In this way the animal tries to show its power. You should be very careful if an adult breeding goat stands in front of you on its hind legs, since the force of the impact at the moment an animal weighing 80-100 kg is lowered onto its front legs can be extremely dangerous to health.
Goats willingly make contact with people and easily remember the words, intonation and gestures of the owner. Scientists conduct expensive experiments to study the mental abilities of animals in laboratory conditions. But it’s enough to talk to the nomads of Mongolia, whose herds of camels and goats, and herds of horses live in semi-wild conditions on free grazing, to learn about the special connection between humans and animals. These livestock farmers will tell you that it is impossible to work with animals without talking to them, without touching them, without petting them. Most farms in Europe and America are trying to mechanize work on their farms as much as possible; with the advent of chips and robotic milkers, the need to interact with goats has almost completely disappeared, thereby we are missing out on a lot of knowledge on the psychology and behavioral characteristics of animals, and we are losing touch with nature.
Be sure to talk to the goats. It is impossible to teach a dog certain commands without talking to it. The dog learns to follow commands based on the voice and words of the owner. If the commands are successfully completed, the dog receives treats and affection, which is positive reinforcement for correct behavior. Work with goats should be done in the same way. Give your goats names and use them in all work processes involving them. Goats quickly get used to their names. And even if the goat is not in the mood to respond to its name, this does not mean that it did not recognize it and did not understand that they were addressing it. Despite the fact that humans are the crown of nature, cats or dogs understand and interact with goats much better. Thus, mutual understanding between different species of animals is much greater and clearer than with humans. It is generally accepted that the interest of goats in studying humans, our habits, and words is due to the fact that after domestication, some of the knowledge needed by goats in the wild lost its meaning and was forgotten, and therefore there was a need to fill the free space in the brain’s memory with new knowledge. Animals by nature do not like to be bored, do not like routine and routine. If a goat gets bored, it will definitely find an opportunity to entertain itself and cause mischief. Goats learn easily from both humans and each other. For example, young goats, seeing how adult queens open the bolts of gates, over time also learn this skill.
In turn, older queens initially learned this from a person, watching how he opens and closes the gate. Another example is milking, when first kittens quickly get used to the milking process and the milking parlor, following the example of older goats. Speaking about the behavior of goats, one should not forget about the individual characteristics of the animals. In every herd there are emotionally unstable goats, prone to attacks of panic and fear. The milk yield of such goats is unstable. A few of these emotional goats have a negative impact on the entire herd, as they bring unrest into it. It is worth noting that this behavior is inherited from mother to daughters and is reinforced by personal example. For this reason, it is customary to rank particularly noisy goats with a bad character; in some cases, it is necessary to rank the entire line.
In the morning I began to worry about the question of how to distinguish a crazy goat from an ordinary, normal one. If there are crazy goats, then sooner or later they will show up in my herd, since it is constantly growing. And she needs to be treated right away and, in general, given a separate room so that other, normal people don’t become infected. On the other hand, normal goats are all a little crazy, and I think I read somewhere that schizophrenia is not contagious. Then, logically, a crazy goat will not be much different from an ordinary non-crazy goat, and will behave in approximately the same way. What's the point of treating her then? Let him live!
The population of our village is almost 89% goats. However, recently it was 82%, but that’s not the point. In itself, life next to a small herd of goats is no different from life next to a small flock or herd, or some other herd or flock. Maybe even a pack of primates. But still, goats have more personal example in management, and primates have a developed system for controlling speech or signs. But the wonderful and wonderful principles of management are approximately the same. And the principles of separation from the gray mass of leaders, leaders and other elites.
This is not the Flask, horned in different directions, but its sister the Flask
Goats communicate through body language and gestures. The tilt of the horns, body movement, posture and even butting are actually communication and these are the simplest commands or requests that people convey with sounds. There is such a super interesting science of ethology, which studies animal behavior. You can determine the status of an individual in a herd or flock by posture or gesture, facial expressions and understand exactly who is dominant or dominant. And then the word “status” appeared. Status is completely from the animal world, and in goat (and still human) life it has the most important meaning and many are concerned with status most of all.
To better understand the importance of status, let’s remember the comedy “Kin-dza-dza,” which depicts a society in which color differentiation of pants has been introduced as a marker of social hierarchy. Those with pants of the same color had to squat and say “ku” to individuals with a different color of pants. In goats, status is emphasized by the size of the animal, its weight. And the size of the horns. In the military, status hangs on the shoulder straps and is maintained in the same way as in animals - by shouts, poses, facial expressions and gestures. Large black cars from German manufacturers from the same opera.
But most of all they emphasize the status of the action. A big and strong goat with powerful horns can kick and gore whoever he wants and how he wants. The little goat can only squeak and run away. This is what status is. For both goats and residents of the Russian Federation, status plays a very important role in life, one might say, a first-class one. With status you are the leader of the herd, but without status you are driven away from the feeder and you have less oats and worse hay. And in the barn they are forced to sleep closer to the exit - it is blowing there and the wolves from there begin to eat the goat company.
The goat or goat with the highest status is the dominant individual in the herd. The highest status is not necessarily the most massive animal, but one of the most massive. To gain weight, you need to be fierce, smart and active. Moreover, first of all you need to be cruel. Beat everyone, regardless of gender and age. Grabbing oats or bran, pushing others away from the feeder. The feeding trough in a goat herd is a sacred place.
A cruel animal puts pressure over others and forces others to consider its interests. Moreover, the interests of others may not be taken into account at all. If Maruska needs to go gnaw on rotten boards, the whole herd will follow Maruska to gnaw on rotten boards. Some will just stand, some will gnaw, some will pluck the withered grass nearby. And for herd animals this behavior is the norm. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Merry too, though.
Goats are kind animals, if you think about it. They do not have a fifth column in their herd, they do not kill their own, and they will even accept a goat from someone else’s herd and not drive it away. They will beat you a little so that she understands the structure of the vertical power structure and threaten her. But they will not kill anyone and the entire hierarchy is based on honest fights and butting heads, however, there are associations based on age and kinship. They can be called spiritual bonds, exaggerating of course.
The first unification in my herd based on age, gender and shared childhood. And so far this association is the strongest. It consists of young goats born a little over a year ago. I personally call this association “Girlfriends”. There are four goats in it: Fairy, Lorca, Bender and Goner. They even sleep close to each other. Together they recently butted Fenya, an older goat. I don’t know the whole story of the confrontation, but Fenya is the most harmless creature in the world.
The second association, which, however, has been falling apart lately, is Masha and Dashka. This is mother and daughter, leader and follower, dominant and dominant. At first, when there were few goats and the cat Bagheera was still a kitten, the goat Masha was the leader of the herd and, in general, a respected and legendary person. Leader in strength and mass, moderately fierce, intelligent and active goat. She remains like this even now, but she was first gently moved from her place of leader by the goat Shashlychok, who later signed up to be an astronaut and left the herd for this reason. After the smart and strong Shashlychok, Chubais, a healthy goat weighing under 80 kg, the most cruel of the entire herd, self-nominated for president of the herd.
An animal with a high status will not negotiate the division of oats, it simply does not allow the situation to come to that. Taking everything for yourself is such a task. But there are other members of the herd who do not agree with this corruption component and actively oppose it. Near the most sacred place (the feeding trough), goat fights acquire the most severe and active character. Here all spiritual bonds and associations are discarded, the horns grind and their blows against each other are frequent and strong.
And a small goat can fiercely defend its place at the feeder, and even the kids can crawl through and manage to grab a little oats while the adults throw them away. I have to feed the kids separately, otherwise they will get very little, because the kids have neither intelligence nor mass simply due to their age. I now keep the goats in a separate barn and do not release them into the main herd. There are many reasons, but a common and understandable one: females with kids, even in large numbers, live more peacefully without goats. Bucks, due to their weight and ferocity, are dominant and eat more food than females, often keeping them away from the feeder.
The cruelty of goats implies that they will go further in asserting their right to eat first or even to eat alone. Females will go looking for another option, they are just more active and, one might say, fussy. Females are saved by their fussiness; they need to bear or feed offspring and their body forces them to fuss and look for something to eat. Therefore, in terms of leadership, they have a trump card - they are very active.
If you tie the leader of the herd and the herd at least somehow eats by walking in circles around the tied one, then the leader can remain a leader. But in case of malnutrition among the females, the first to begin is fermentation both in the minds and actual real fermentation with the feet in the adjacent territory. And a new leader will inevitably appear, one who will risk moving farthest from the previous leader and in the direction of a potentially food-rich place. And if this leader is massive and respected, then the herd will follow him. And the past boss will have to scream and helplessly tug on the leash, seeing how his recent subjects are running away to another pasture.
However, schizophrenia does not occur in goats. But with people it always and maybe even often. Recently, early in the morning, I saw a mouse at home, walking with a very businesslike look from the room to the kitchen. Seconds later, a cat passed this route, also very busy and busy beyond the roof. One of them must be a hallucination, because I did not hear any fuss or sounds of hot mouse catching. Or maybe the cat doesn’t catch mice in the house, considering that they are my property and doesn’t want to deprive me of the pleasure of hunting?
