Posts Tagged ‘history’

Goat General Knowledge: Interesting Facts

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Are you an animal enthusiast who thinks that you know about the four-legged creature we call a goat? Whether you’re talking about a buck or a billy, a nanny or a doe, or even a kid, there are a few snippets of zoological and agricultural information that apply to all of them. After one read of this “baa-aahdd” (cheap humor) list of knowledge, you might look at your horned friend differently.

  • Though people will understand what you mean, it’s not wise to call male goats a “billy” or females a “nanny” when around official herdsmen and breeders. These are terms only amateurs use and will get you frowned upon (or, worse, laughed at) if trying to pass yourself off as knowledgeable about Capra hircus, as zoologists call the domestic goat.
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Pygmy Goat aka Cameroon Dwarf Goat

Saturday 13 July 2013

Facts and History of the Breed

One of the most popular goat breeds of 2013 is the Cameroon Dwarf goat. More commonly known as the Pygmy Goat, this straight-haired dwarf of the horned kingdom is considered an exotic to all countries outside of Cameroon in central Africa. Similar types of this critter exist across northern Africa, southwestern Africa, and east Africa. Each of these small groups are breeds in their own right, however.

The breed that we now see in the United States is typically the French Cameroon Dwarf. This specimen originated in Africa but was exported to zoos across the world. Particularly zoo habitats in Sweden and Germany were first to showcase the Dwarfs, placing them in a group of animals listed as “exotics”. The first Cameroons reliably documented to have found their way to the United States did so relatively recently, in 1959. A family by the name of Rhue brought the critters to their California estate and the Catskill Game Farm in upstate New York. These Pygmies came from Sweden.
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