Goat Trivia Questions and Answers About Goats
The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated
from what?
A: The wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe.
The goat is a member of what family?
A: Bovidae and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope
subfamily Caprinae.
How many breeds of goats are there?
A: There are over 300 distinct breeds of goat.
Goats are one of the oldest what?
A: Domesticated species.
What have they have been used for over much of the world?
A: Their milk, meat, hair, and skins.
According to the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization, how
many live goats were there around the globe in 2011?
A: 924 million.
Female goats are referred to as what?
A: "does" or "nannies",
What are intact males called?
A: "bucks", "billies", or "rams"
Their offspring are what?
A: "kids".
Castrated males are called what?
A: "wethers".
Why did Neolithic farmers begin to herd wild goats?
A: Primarily for easy access to milk and meat.
They also used their dung as fuel, and their bones, hair,
and sinew for what?
A: Clothing, building, and tools.
The earliest remnants of domesticated goats dating 10,000
years before present are found where?
A: In Ganj Dareh in Iran.
Historically, goat hide has been used for what in both
traveling and transporting wine for sale?
A: Water and wine bottles.
Goat hide has also been used to produce what?
A: Parchment.
Each recognized breed of goats has specific weight ranges,
which vary from about 45 pounds to over 300 pounds for what?
A: For bucks of larger breeds such as the Boer.
At the bottom of the size range are miniature breeds such
as the African Pigmy, which stand how tall at the shoulder as adults?
A: 16 to 23 inches.
Most goats naturally have two "what", of various shapes and
sizes depending on the breed?
A: Horns.
Goats have horns unless they are what?
A: "polled" (meaning, genetically hornless) or the horns have been removed,
typically soon after birth.
Why are the horns often removed in commercial dairy goat
herds?
A: To reduce the injuries to humans and other goats.
Goats are ruminants, and they have what type of stomach?
A: A four-chambered stomach consisting of the rumen, the reticulum, the omasum,
and the abomasum.
As with other mammal ruminants, they are what?
A: Even-toed ungulates.
The females have an udder consisting of how many teats, in
contrast to cattle, which have four teats?
A: Two teats.
An exception to this is the Boer goat, which sometimes may
have up to how many teats?
A: Eight.
What shape are a goats pupils?
A: Horizontal, slit-shaped pupils.
Both male and female goats have what?
A: Beards.
Some breeds of sheep and goats look similar, but they can
usually be told apart how?
A: Goat tails are short and usually point up, whereas sheep tails hang down and
are usually longer.
How long does it take goats to reach puberty?
A: Goats reach puberty between three and 15 months of age depending on breed and
nutritional status.
In temperate climates and among the Swiss breeds, when does
the breeding season start?
A: It commences as the day length shortens, and ends in early
spring or before.
In equatorial regions, goats are able to breed when?
A: At any time of the year.
When do Bucks (intact males) of Swiss and northern breeds
come into rut?
A: In the fall as with the does' heat cycles.
Bucks of equatorial breeds are capable of breeding when?
A: At all times.