[VIDEO] Bleating goat a miracle
This rare event will make even the toughest of cynics believe in miracles.
During the early morning hours of a Saturday, Mary, a Merino sheep, gave birth to Venus, a hybrid that looks more like a goat.
Call it a miracle or simply a will of nature, it is definitely very rare. A hybrid is an organism that comes from two different species. In this case, from a sheep and a goat.
“I first couldn’t believe what I saw. Here a goat looked up at me, bleating like a sheep,” owner Carrie Dunning told the News during a recent visit at their home and business at Tiny Owl Party Venue.
Mary, a three-year-old female with no male companions, started looking a bit over-weight to Carrie’s liking.
“I told our worker to start minimising her food intake,” she said.
But it seemed that Mary was not putting on the pounds because of her appetite, but because she was pregnant.
“I was absolutely certain that no male sheep came close to her, so I found it difficult to believe at first.”
Yet, on 26 September, Mary bleated through the night and welcomed little Mars, a male hybrid that looks just like his mommy. But it was only when his sister, Venus, arrived that things started to seem even stranger.
“So I took blood samples at the veterinary clinic where I work and sent it off to Inquaba Biotechnical Industries for a test,” Carrie explained.
The genomics company answered with a genetics testing report two weeks later. Venus, the goat-looking lamb, was indeed a hybrid.
According to the genetic researcher that tested Venus, goat-sheep hybrids are very rare, but some cases have been reported previously.
“Many hybrids abort before birth and very few which are born survive adulthood,” she explained.
Carrie, an avid animal-lover that owns 300 owls, dogs, emus and horses, said this is what she is afraid of. She already planned a separate enclosure for the geeps, as they are commonly known, for extra safety.
Carrie suspects that Venus is growing a horn on one side and can’t help but laugh at the idea of a bleating goat with a soft coat, sheep ears and possibly only one horn.
To view more photos of these adorable geets, click here.
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