Feral goats on RTE 1

crackcrack30 · 21-02-2011 7:35pm #1

Nice footage and info on feral goats on nationwide this avo 21/2
check it out on the iPlayer........

cc30

Lining it up for protection I'd say.......

daithi55 · 21-02-2011 7:42pm

take it its over so

Mr.Flibble · 21-02-2011 7:56pm

daithi55 wrote: »

take it its over so

No, it continues 'til Wednesday. Then there's mandatory day without coverage, followed by the election on Friday.

daithi55 · 21-02-2011 8:05pm

heres the link http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1092258

session savage · 21-02-2011 8:29pm

anyone else ever notice the amount of people featured on nationwide who have english accents?

sfakiaman · 21-02-2011 9:15pm

It seems that there is a problem with the original Irish goats interbreeding with non irish goats and diluting the blood line. It would be interesting to know the position of the different political parties to this problem. My guess is that the Green Party would want to round up and sterilize the non-native goats. SF would deny any knowledge of what happened to the goats, Labour wouldn't be too sure what a goat was, but would look into it after the election, FG would figure that at least 60% of the goats would give them their no1 and the independents would try to get the goat tracks turned into motorways

Grizzly 45 · 21-02-2011 9:32pm

ROTFLMAO!!:D:D
So what would Fianna FAIL do with the goats??Proably say they all partied,and must share the burden of taxation on greenery?

sfakiaman · 21-02-2011 11:25pm

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

ROTFLMAO!!:D:D
So what would Fianna FAIL do with the goats??Proably say they all partied,and must share the burden of taxation on greenery?

Sorry, I'd forgotten about FF but at this stage they're probably surreptitiously hiding their wellie boots and pretending the cross breeding was nothing to do with them.

Tackleberrywho · 22-02-2011 12:15am

An Irish icon!

4gun · 22-02-2011 12:42am

Ask Transitwhateverhisname if they're a rare breed, if you give them commercial value (cashmere industry) watch how their numbers drop
of course we do have them to thank for another Irish icon... the bodhran

Tackleberrywho · 22-02-2011 12:59am

4gun wrote: »

Ask Transitwhateverhisname if they're a rare breed, if you give them commercial value (cashmere industry) watch how their numbers drop
of course we do have them to thank for another Irish icon... the bodhran

They are fairly common in the slieve blooms and across the midlands

They are not that Feral near me, pretty fearless of humans.

Nobody Bothers them much through superstition

We even have The Town of the Goats!
Most Bodhrán's are made out of greyhound skin these days anyway!!

Whiter skin with a nicer tone!
(although nobody would tell you that to your face)

redzerologhlen · 22-02-2011 1:07am

Theres more wild goats in my parish than there is people, they are taking over the burren altogether!!

mikemac · 22-02-2011 1:11am

Arra Mountains in Tipp are full of them.

Nobody goes near them, they live like Kings of their domain

redzerologhlen · 22-02-2011 1:36am

Same here but theres so many of them now that they have become a nuisance, I counted over 150 of them in our land the other day.

Tackleberrywho · 22-02-2011 1:57am

Most of Feral Goats near me have several all white goats in the herd, which means the chances of them being pure is minimal

Most are just released or abandoned

4gun · 22-02-2011 12:36pm

Tackleberrywho wrote: »

They are fairly common in the slieve blooms and across the midlands

They are not that Feral near me, pretty fearless of humans.

Nobody Bothers them much through superstition

We even have The Town of the Goats!
Most Bodhrán's are made out of greyhound skin these days anyway!!

Whiter skin with a nicer tone!
(although nobody would tell you that to your face)

explains why they no longer smell,

sikastag · 22-02-2011 12:58pm

Just watched it there on RTE player. Interesting that he put forward the idea of removing 'Irish' goats from population, breeding and re-introduction.

He didnt mention culling as an option at all. I would imagine the above method with culling would be the most effective.

Removing them and trying to breed them and replace them would be very expensive and labour intensive. Expanding their territories to former ranges is all good and well, but some local farmers may not be too pleased and it could still reult in their 'persecution' as he put it.

Maybe culling the non-irish lads and trying to improve areas they are already occupying along with breeding programme would be better. That way there wouldnt be war waged on them in new areas and it would provide meat/skins from culled animals.

Just a thought while Im eating me lunch!

Glensman · 22-02-2011 1:00pm

I havent had a chance to watch it yet.... but...

I thought all goats were Feral to varying degrees? ie, there are no native Irish goats? I thought the were all imported from Scandinavia a few hundred years ago...

sikastag · 22-02-2011 1:03pm

Yeah, im not a 100% on it either to be honest. I have heard that the Irish population is actually true but very much a minority or 'watered down' population. Not really sure of their origins. he claims they date back to Ice Age which would have them considered native.

Glensman · 22-02-2011 2:07pm

From: http://www.wicklowmountainsnationalpark.ie/FeralGoat.html

What does ‘feral’ mean?
The word feral means that these goats are descended from domesticated or farm animals, rather than coming from a native wild population. The nearest native wild goats and sheep occur in the Alps and south-eastern Europe, so any ‘wild’ goats here were originally brought over by humans.
When were goats first brought to Ireland?
It is thought that the first goats were brought over about 4000 years ago. Goats were very useful and hardy animals, kept for their milk, meat, hair and hides. Over time, some escaped and others were released, eventually forming wild populations. Even now, you will occasionally see a formerly domestic, soon-to-be-wild goat joining a feral herd.

sikastag · 22-02-2011 2:18pm

Just spotted what I wrote there in earlier post (non feral/irish). Oops. (edited it)
Get where you were coming from now. I think all are feral but some populations would be deemed distinctly Irish and I presume these would be older population. Possibly one you refer to as introduced??? I think the issue might be with more modern releases? Either way, if there is a distinct population to be conserved would it not be best to reduce numbers of non-distinct populations?

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Feral goats on RTE 1

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