Goats and eye contact. (1 Viewer)

[Binastro]

Apparently goats can make their needs known to humans through eye contact like dogs.

It seems that their eyes have square pupils.
Maybe they were using old Porroprism binoculars too much and adapted to the squared off exit pupils.

 

[Robert Wallace]

Don't get too excited, apparently they need a large field (of view) if you're thinking of keeping one.

 

[PhilR.]

Apparently goats can make their needs known to humans through eye contact like dogs.

They will also head-butt the livin' crud out of you if they feel you didn't get the message the first time.....

 

[jan van daalen]

This reminds me on a movie where men were staring at goats.......

 

[Binastro]

We had a goat in our garden in the 1940s, but not now.
Can anybody confirm if their eyes have square pupils.
If they do why is this?
What advantage does it confer?

I suppose if I watch too much T.V. I'll get rectangular pupils.

 

[mathare]

Can anybody confirm if their eyes have square pupils.

Yes, as do sheep. I think goats have their eyes set quite far round on the head too and have something like a 300+ degree scope of vision which has evolved because they are grazing prey and don't want to be caught unawares by predators sneaking up on them. Incidentally most predators have round pupils, I think.

 

[Binastro]

Thanks for that.

 

[perterra]

I will only say, careful. There was a joke at one time, the punch line was, a good goat'll do that.

 

[dantheman]

Yes, as do sheep. I think goats have their eyes set quite far round on the head too .

Goats have their eyes set far round on their head? - Eye billy view.

 

[Macheo Nycticorax]

We have a sloped part of our yard that can't grow grass and instead grows a varied scrub. Lately we've cared for it by inviting our neighbor to graze his goats there. They like to graze slopes. He sectioned the slope off into three spaces with wire that looks electrified, but isn't. The goats won't pass the wire -- actually one has twice but he only went about twenty feet away before he got distracted by something he wanted to eat. We just pulled the wire and put him back. My neighbor grazes the goats for three days in each of the three sections and that knocks down the scrub really well. After the nine days are done he takes the goats away and then we wait one moon cycle for the parasites to die before we do it all again. Weird thing is that the goats don't just mow everything down. They leave certain plants and it isn't consistent. They do it as a group. In one section they left all the blackberries. In another they devoured the blackberries and left a tall, feathery plant... Don't know the name. There's a big Boulder that sticks up in the third section. They all like to stand on top of it.

 

[mathare]

Goats have their eyes set far round on their head? - Eye billy view.

Nanny or puns please, this is a serious thread

 

[paddy7]

When I was a kid (!), my dad told me that mountain goats had shorter legs on one side, and that was how they managed to stand up. I asked how come one was facing the other way, and he said that one was left-handed.

 

[Binastro]

Assuming goats have square pupils in their eyes and can see stars in the sky, then the bright stars will have 4 spikes coming out of them.
This is how stars are often depicted, although we don't see them this way.

Capricornus in the southern sky is sort of a horned goat.

Capella, the bright star in the north in Auriga is a nanny goat or she goat.
There is a little triangle of stars nearby that are called the kids.

I kid you not.

I still don't know what advantage square pupils have.

 

[Chosun Juan]

Out this way goats are introduced 'ferals'.

I recall being down the coast once fishing off the rocks - solo. Doing my own best mountain goat impression I was clambering around a seriously ridiculously steep (like 60 degrees plus! Stupid steep really) headland to get to what looked like a gem of a little deep inlet with magical foamy washes. I remember vividly the beautiful clear sunny day, the brilliant blue water, and the rhythmical sound of the sea. Hanging on for dear life, and wondering at my own sanity, I carefully maneuvered around the corner - wide eyed with expectation at discovering my own little secret spot, when ............

Stuff me! :eek!: There facing me with just as much surprise, not more than 15ft away was a big ol' Billy goat - massive horns flared wide .......

It was a totally, totally SURREAL moment.

Scared the living bejayzus outta me!

If goats possess some higher form of emotional intelligence and are able to detect subtle non verbal queues, then the blank stare back at me indicated that it eluded both of us.

I seriously thought he was going to head but me straight off the cliff into the swirling ocean far below - knocked out, drowned, mysteriously disappeared ...... never to be heard of again ! :eek!: :gn: My poor old mum !! :-C

Luckily, angels must have been watching over me that day o for he turned on a dime (no doubt so that his side with the shorter legs were facing the right way :-O , engaged 'goat-wheel drive' and virtually leapt up the cliff at high speed on the 4 inch wide ledges and took off up out of sight ........ (o)<

Phee -- yewwww !!! :loveme:

Feeling lucky just to be alive, I curtailed the fishing expedition and the dodgy cliff roulette, and scrambled back - stunned - to the car .......

I still regard myself as no expert on goats, but I get the uneasy feeling that it's probably not a good idea to get into a staring contest with them ! 3

I wish Wedge-tailed Eagles would learn to throw more of them off cliffs to make something of a dent in the population ..... probably too busy learning to do that with the introduced Red Fox and feral puddy-tats so far ...... here's hoping .......


Chosun :gh:

 

[jan van daalen]

Out this way goats are introduced 'ferals'.

I recall being down the coast once fishing off the rocks - solo. Doing my own best mountain goat impression I was clambering around a seriously ridiculously steep (like 60 degrees plus! Stupid steep really) headland to get to what looked like a gem of a little deep inlet with magical foamy washes. I remember vividly the beautiful clear sunny day, the brilliant blue water, and the rhythmical sound of the sea. Hanging on for dear life, and wondering at my own sanity, I carefully maneuvered around the corner - wide eyed with expectation at discovering my own little secret spot, when ............

Stuff me! :eek!: There facing me with just as much surprise, not more than 15ft away was a big ol' Billy goat - massive horns flared wide .......

It was a totally, totally SURREAL moment.

Scared the living bejayzus outta me!

If goats possess some higher form of emotional intelligence and are able to detect subtle non verbal queues, then the blank stare back at me indicated that it eluded both of us.

I seriously thought he was going to head but me straight off the cliff into the swirling ocean far below - knocked out, drowned, mysteriously disappeared ...... never to be heard of again ! :eek!: :gn: My poor old mum !! :-C

Luckily, angels must have been watching over me that day o for he turned on a dime (no doubt so that his side with the shorter legs were facing the right way :-O , engaged 'goat-wheel drive' and virtually leapt up the cliff at high speed on the 4 inch wide ledges and took off up out of sight ........ (o)<

Phee -- yewwww !!! :loveme:

Feeling lucky just to be alive, I curtailed the fishing expedition and the dodgy cliff roulette, and scrambled back - stunned - to the car .......

I still regard myself as no expert on goats, but I get the uneasy feeling that it's probably not a good idea to get into a staring contest with them ! 3

I wish Wedge-tailed Eagles would learn to throw more of them off cliffs to make something of a dent in the population ..... probably too busy learning to do that with the introduced Red Fox and feral puddy-tats so far ...... here's hoping .......


Chosun :gh:

Was the name of the goat, that stared at your secret spot, George Cloony?

 

[Binastro]

The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009).
George Clooney.

 

[Binastro]

An explanation is that sheep, goats, toads and octopuses have rectangular pupils so that the narrower portion parallel to the horizon gives greater depth of field at the edge of the field for detecting predators.

I suppose that the pupil expands from rectangular to nearer square in low light?

2).
Prey animals have horizontal slit eyes as above.
They rotate their eyes or swivel them when grazing with their heads down to keep the slits horizontal.

Predator animals often have vertical slit eyes.

So each have evolved differently.
One is hunted the others are hunters.

3).
Octopuses eyes have no blind spots.

4).
Comment.
'Goats have no souls. I grew up on a goat farm. I hate goats.'

5).
Science Advances.
07 August 2015
Why do animals eyes have different shapes.
Martin Banks et al.
Very interesting but complex.

So there is a lot of information available.
I had not considered this topic before.

 

[jan van daalen]

An explanation is that sheep, goats, toads and octopuses have rectangular pupils so that the narrower portion parallel to the horizon gives greater depth of field at the edge of the field for detecting predators.

I suppose that the pupil expands from rectangular to nearer square in low light?

2).
Prey animals have horizontal slit eyes as above.
They rotate their eyes or swivel them when grazing with their heads down to keep the slits horizontal.

Predator animals often have vertical slit eyes.

So each have evolved differently.
One is hunted the others are hunters.

3).
Octopuses eyes have no blind spots.

4).
Comment.
'Goats have no souls. I grew up on a goat farm. I hate goats.'

5).
Science Advances.
07 August 2015
Why do animals eyes have different shapes.
Martin Banks et al.
Very interesting but complex.

So there is a lot of information available.
I had not considered this topic before.

Just watch the movie and all your questions are answered.

 

[Binastro]

Hi Jan.
I watched most of it but didn't think it one of George Clooney's better movies.
If it is on again I'll watch the whole movie.

I prefer 'The American', 'O brother where art Thou', Burn after Reading' and 'Out of Sight'.

 

[jan van daalen]

Hi Jan.
I watched most of it but didn't think it one of George Clooney's better movies.
If it is on again I'll watch the whole movie.

I prefer 'The American', 'O brother where art Thou', Burn after Reading' and 'Out of Sight'.

Yep, but the staring down project actually excisted:smoke::smoke: