When it comes to goats, many people immediately think of a rather cute and gentle herbivorous animal. However, is that the reality? You might be surprised when you read the story below.
A clip of the goat’s unusual behavior goes viral on the Internet.
At the end of 2021, a video went viral on the Internet at lightning speed, capturing a perplexing and somewhat frightening scene on a farm in Japan. According to the farmer, one day he saw his black goat suddenly displaying strange behavior. Instead of walking on all fours as usual, it walked on two legs like a human, prompting him to quickly use his mobile phone to record the footage.
The goat walks on two legs like a human.
From the shared images, one can see a black goat slowly walking on two legs inside a pen surrounded by a metal wire fence. Its front legs were tucked against its chest, and its posture was nothing like that of a typical goat.
What is particularly noteworthy and also alarming is that right behind the goat was a rooster. After the rooster followed the goat inside the house, it was torn apart and devoured by the goat.
The rooster follows the goat, unaware of the horror about to happen.
It is unclear whether the images were too gruesome for the farmer to share or if he simply couldn’t capture it in time. What is known is that a creature typically considered a gentle herbivore suddenly became “bloodthirsty” and turned into a carnivore, previously walking on two legs like a human, leaving many people astonished and even frightened.
So, what happened?
Why did the goat walk on two legs and eat the rooster?
Shortly after being shared online, the clip sent chills down many people’s spines due to the unusual behavior of the black goat.
“Is it being controlled by some supernatural force? Why does it look so terrifying like Satan?”, commented one netizen.
“It looks just like a scene from a horror movie I’ve seen, truly spine-chilling.”, another person agreed.
So how can we explain this? First, let’s address the goat suddenly walking on two legs.
A goat in India also astonished with its ability to walk on two legs like a human.
For a long time, there have been many videos documenting goats walking on two legs, with their owners confirming they have trained them to do so. However, even without human training, goats can still walk on two legs in certain situations, such as when fighting or trying to reach leaves on tall trees.
In nature, when animals attack each other, they tend to want to increase their body size to appear larger and more intimidating to their foes. Thus, standing on two legs is quite normal.
Additionally, when searching for food in high places that cannot be reached while standing on four legs, they will also stand on two legs. This is a survival adaptation, so a goat unexpectedly walking on two legs is not too rare.
In 2020, a clip of a black goat in India also went viral on YouTube with nearly a million views.
However, the most astonishing part is why the goat would “devour” the rooster like that. It is a herbivore, after all!
In reality, the belief that carnivores will only eat meat and herbivores will only eat plants is not entirely accurate.
A white goat that once ate chicks.
In nature, it is not uncommon for herbivores to eat meat and vice versa. If the habitat of herbivorous animals undergoes widespread changes, and certain plant species—their usual food—are no longer available, they may turn to small animals for sustenance to meet their survival needs.
Similarly, if carnivorous animals cannot hunt any prey, they may also have to resort to eating plants to avoid starvation. For example, originally, pandas were carnivorous, but due to environmental changes and the disappearance of many large animals, their diet had to change to adapt, leading to the pandas we see today that eat bamboo leaves.
Of course, herbivores and carnivores have different body structures and digestive systems. For instance, many herbivores have cloven hooves and non-sharp teeth. They are not adept at catching prey, and their digestive systems are not suited for digesting meat. Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, they will not eat meat.
But in the clip, the black goat living on the farm certainly had no shortage of food, so why did it eat the rooster?
Regarding this issue, some experts suggest that the phenomenon we just witnessed is called Pica syndrome, or commonly known as eating disorder. It refers to the craving or consumption of non-food items, such as dirt, stones, or sand, or unusual food. Most medical guidelines worldwide consider Pica to be an eating disorder.
The cause of this Pica syndrome may be due to nutritional deficiencies on the farm, leading the goat to eat plaster walls, waste, or even hair, fur, or the rooster as mentioned in the story above.
