The Fainting Goat is a Weird Breed That Stiffens and Falls Over When Startled

When frightened, the muscles of this breed of goat go completely stiff – and the poor animal falls over. However, some farmers have seen a potential in that unusual behaviour.

Type “fainting goats” into a YouTube search and you will be lost watching incredible videos of this breed for hours. Also referred to as myotonic goats, these domestic animals have a very strange muscle reflex to any fear-based situation. All of a sudden, they get completely stiff and fall over.

But don’t fret: the reaction doesn’t normally cause any pain and the goats recover after 10-20 seconds. The process is attributed to a rare genetic disorder that somehow (or perhaps on purpose?) became hereditary.

Indeed, human intention might have played a role, as many people around the world keep these goats as pets, or breed them for milk and meat. Their fainting instinct is actually an asset: it actually prevents them from jumping over fences and escaping when frightened.

This strange behavior is caused by an inherited disorder of a chloride channel in the muscles of the skeleton. In affected goats, a gene called CLCN1 contains a missense mutation; the amino acid alanine is replaced with a proline residue, causing the chloride channel in the muscle fibres to have a reduced conductance of chloride ions. The mutation occurs in a sequence of seven amino acids, causing a delay in the relaxation of the muscles after the goat has made an involuntary movement.

Most fainting goats seem to originate from Tennessee, appearing around the 1880s. At that time, the goats were reported in five counties in Tennessee – Marshall, Giles, Lawrence, Maury, and Coffee – plus, there were also some specimens in Texas that were brought over from Tennessee by a farmer who knew of the goats’ existence and wanted to prove it to his neighbors.

Since these goats are unable to jump over normal-sized fences, and instead look for holes in the ground to crawl underneath the fences, this unusual behavior made them more desirable for farmers, many of whom used stone walls for fences to contain their goats.

According to the MGR (Myotonic Goat Registry), maintaining the breed is of great significance, as it is so much more than just muscular stiffness. Important factors the MGR cites in favor of maintaining the breed include quiet behavior, parasite resistance, and good mothering ability. That said, the main reasons behind continuing to breed these goats have been their fainting behavior and, again, the possibility of keeping them in minimally fenced farms due to their inability to jump over anything over 0.5m.

Ethical? You decide.

Sources: 1, 2