Goats scale dam in Italy
Using moves that would make any rock climber jealous, Alpine ibex
cling to a near-vertical rock face of a northern Italian dam in summer
2010.
This and other pictures of the goats have been circulating online
recently, particularly in emails claiming the animals are bighorn sheep
on Wyoming's Buffalo Bill Dam, the rumor-quashing website Snopes
reported in September.
Gravity-defying goats |
In truth, Adriano Migliorati snapped the pictures at the
160-foot-tall (49-meter-tall) Cingino Dam, the Italian hiker told
National Geographic News via email. The goats are attracted to the dam's
salt-crusted stones, according to the UK - based Caters news agency.
Grazing animals don't get enough of the mineral in their vegetarian
diets.
It's not far-fetched, though, to think such a scene could be
photographed in the United States. For example, mountain goats could
scale dams in the US West, according to, Senior advisor for sustainable
hydropower at the US-based nonprofit the Nature Conservancy Jeff
Opperman.
Opperman, who called the Cingino pictures 'mind-boggling,' pointed
out a picture of a Montana mountain goat doing an "incredibly acrobatic
stretching maneuver to lick salt" in the November National Geographic
magazine.
"He is wedged up this sheer vertical cliff face, almost doing a yoga
pose with four hooves splayed out there," he said. "It's the same
concept (with the Italian goats) - these animals can overcome what looks
like impossible topography to get what they want."
Opperman cautioned, though, that the Italian dam is rare, in that its
rough masonry provides gaps that act as toeholds. The more common,
smooth-concrete dams - such as Buffalo Bill Dam - would give goats
anywhere in the world trouble, he said. |