Sometimes animal behavior surprises you. The Myotonic Goat which faint temporarily seizes when feels panic. This goat is also known as wooden-leg goat, falling goat, fainting goat, stiff-legged goat, and nervous goat. Humans get faint while the feeling of panic attacks, strong emotional stress or any disease.
The interesting thing about Myotonic Goat, when they fell over, their legs hilariously raised towards the sky. The comical behavior making Myotonic Goat popular among people and they often record the video of Myotonic Goat for social media platforms. The goat abruptly laying motionless on the ground for 5 to 20 seconds, and then bounce back on their feet as quickly as they fell.
This curious reaction to fright has made fainting goats do not lose consciousness. They just become stiff from fright and a genetic condition called as myotonia congenita, which causes their muscles to become rigid for a brief period when startled. The stiff-legged goat behavior is alike to the condition in humans hereditary genetic disorder which is identified as congenital myotonia.
Therefore, once the stiffness goes away, they bounce back quickly on their feet. That is why this goat has given many names mentioned above. The medical conditions of muscle “Myotonia” didn’t hurt them or are painless to the central nervous system. This curious behavior is not exceptional to falling goats or livestock, but human beings can affect by this too.
A transient farmer John Tinsley arrived in Marshall County, Tennessee in the 1880s with four goats. He sold these four goats to his employer Dr. H. H. Mayberry and then moved on to another state. Dr. Mayberry breeds the goats but certainly must have originated somewhere. It is unclear, where he came from or from where he brought these unique goats. However, the origin of the breed remains a mystery because the condition doesn’t appear to have surfaced anywhere else in the world.
The stiff-legged goat eventually became famous in the local market and meat source in the 1950’s. The strictly muscular goats but docile and very much easier to care and maintain. Fainting Goats of Tennessee are also raised as a pet or show animals as they can be sociable, gifted, easy to fence, and entertaining. The goat is poor in climbing and jumping so not difficult to keep them.
In the 1980’s a trend in United States agriculture popular to breed the exotic species of animals including Myotonic Goats. So, this increased trend eventually important for everyone to have registries to track its breeding. Moreover, most of the Myotonic Goats are horned, but some are polled “hornless”.
Most myotonic goats are horned, although many are polled (hornless) and some breeders select specifically for polled goats, the ears are medium-sized and habitually held horizontally. The nervous goats have variable colors but black and white are relatively common. However, the hair coat is changing from very short to long but smooth and shaggy.
So, some breeders prefer shaggy goats as they are very resistant to inclement weather. The meat of fainting Goats is tender and tasty due to the top of meat quality. Also, it is very imperative to realize that the stiffness in no way results in rough meat, but rather just the opposite. The Myotonic Goats reproductive function is highly maternal, normally reproduce non-seasonally at six months intervals.
Moreover, fecundity and milk production are very good. Normally, the twins are not common. However, in rare cases, the triplet is possible as does usually have no problem rearing triplets unassisted. The nervous goats are good foragers, active and are efficient with winter feed.
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