Mountain Goats are unbelievable

 

Are you brave enough to climb a wall like that?
Here is a picture from another angle:

Video of the mountain goats in action:

Below is another example of an impossible climb by a mountain goat.

The Goat Bagpipes with huge horns & goat head pajdusko oro HD! gaida gajda гајда гайд

2 Macedonian goat-head gaidi made by Risto Todoroski, sirulsko@gmail.com, in Sydney.

1. Song on a billy goat(!) gaida, hardwood sleeved in water-buffalo horn. 2. Paidushko oro (folk dance).

Dedo Risto playing a mad high-pitch gaida with drums:
http://www.youtube.com/vasili33

Risto also makes tapans - Balkan drums - from goatskin, and wooden kavals or flutes for sale.

(A note on animal cruelty. The goats are humanely slaughtered for meat by their owners in familiar surroundings, lured with a bucket of treats. No live transportation. No abattoirs!)

Scientists breed goats that produce spider silk

by Lisa Zyga
from: http://www.physorg.com/

Enlarge

Goats that produce spider silk protein in their milk could enable researchers to collect large quantities of the silk. Image credit: National Science Foundation.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers from the University of Wyoming have developed a way to incorporate spiders' silk-spinning genes into goats, allowing the researchers to harvest the silk protein from the goats’ milk for a variety of applications. For instance, due to its strength and elasticity, spider silk fiber could have several medical uses, such as for making artificial ligaments and tendons, for eye sutures, and for jaw repair. The silk could also have applications in bulletproof vests and improved car airbags.

Normally, getting enough spider silk for these applications requires large numbers of spiders. However, spiders tend to be territorial, so when the researchers tried to set up spider farms, the spiders killed each other.

To solve this problem, Randy Lewis, a professor of molecular biology at the University of Wyoming, and other researchers decided to put the spiders’ dragline silk gene into goats in such a way that the goats would only make the protein in their milk. Like any other genetic factor, only a certain percentage of the goats end up with the gene. For instance, of seven goat kids born in February 2010, three have tested positive for having the silk protein gene. When these transgenic goats have kids and start lactating, the researchers will collect the milk and purify the spider silk protein into “much, much higher quantities,” Lewis said.

Other than their ability to produce the spider silk protein, the goats do not seem to have any other differences in health, appearance, or behavior compared to goats without the gene, the researchers said.

In the future, the scientists plan to incorporate the silk genes into alfalfa plants, which they say could produce even larger quantities of silk. They explain that not only is alfalfa widely distributed, it also has a high (20-25%) protein content, making it an ideal crop to produce silk protein.

More information: via: National Science Foundation

© 2010 PhysOrg.com

Mitsubishi offers free goat with Triton ute

Article from:

MITSUBISHI Motors in New Zealand is offering a free goat with every Triton ute sold before August in a novel effort at correcting the economy.

Mitsubishi Motors New Zealand general sales and marketing manager Peter Wilkins said the economy's recovery was in the hands of the rural sector, and goats, like Tritons, were "hardy, versatile units which will integrate directly into existing farm operations''.

Goats improved farm productivity by defending against weeds, were cheaper than toxic sprays, and there was no risk of goat flu affecting the tourism industry, he told NZPA.

"We are aware that three years of drought has severely depleted sheep and beef populations, so what better time to float the goat?''

If the purchaser already had enough goats, Mitsubishi would supply a no-goat package including a five-year/100,000km extended warranty, five free warrant of fitness inspections, 5000km road user charges, five years of roadside assistance and $500 of genuine or approved Triton accessories.

Dude's about to do a disappearing act -- Dude is a magician!

bighugelabs.com — "Caught this guy [Oreamnos americanus, North America's only rupicaprid] as I was hiking along the Beartooth Pass in Montana," writes photographer John Hamilton, "just outside the northeast entrance to Yellowstone National Park (technically inside Custer National Forest). Took one frame and then he was gone."