Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 601
Mountain Goats
Hello Everyone
l have travelled all over the world and seen some pretty spectacular animals: golden eagles, tigers, sharks.
But l have to say that one of the most awesome animals l have ever come across is one far more benign than any of those.
l am talking about the mountain goat.
lt isn’t how they look; but what they are able to do.
They can climb up the steepest and seemingly inaccessible places, and also jump across large gaps and land on small ledges without losing their footing at all.
You will find them in mountainous regions in western North America and Europe.
They have thick, white-grey coats to protect them from the rain and cold in winter, beards and sharp, long, black horns. They but their heads together when they fight or clash horns – and they tend to be quite aggressive.
The males are called billies and the females are called nannies. The babies are called kids and are extremely cute.
Mountain goats are a type of wild goat and have never been domesticated but throughout history people have incorporated their wool into their weaving if they have been able to find some wool that had moulted off the animals in the spring time.
ln mediaeval times, people thought of goats as mystical creatures and used all parts of them in folk medicines. This practice threatened their numbers, and so these dropped right down.
Mountain goats live on the steep slopes of mountains where there are few other creatures that will compete with them for food, or be on the look out to predate them (hunt them down).
The goats do, however, have to be on the look out for eagles wanting to catch their kids which are born in early summer. There are other predators that they have to watch out for on the ground too like: bears, wolves, foxes, snow leopards and mountain lions.
So the goats are always cautious and are ready to run quickly at a moment’s notice across territory that they know well. lf attacked from the air, a goat can dart in any direction and twist and turn up in the air to try and shake off its attacker.
Human hunters can be a threat too, but snow avalanches pose the biggest threat of all.
The mountain goats graze or browse on most of what they can find. They eat mostly grass, but also mosses, lichens, small bushes and conifers.
But they have a lack of salt in their diet, so in order to obtain it, they lick the stones used in building dams because the salt is essential to them.
Their amazing ability to climb sure-footedly over steep rocky terrain and negotiate long jumps between rocks comes from having good eyesight and feet that are made for climbing.
They have wide, even-toed feet with cloven hooves that can spread apart like widely-spaced large toes. They also have coarse, spongy inner pads that provide traction (grip) on smooth surfaces. There is hair between the toes too to ensure even better grip. These feet ensure that the goats are well able to balance on any uneven surfaces.
The goats also have very powerful shoulder muscles to help push them up slopes. They have short, strong legs to help them manoeuvre over uneven surfaces, and they have an exceptional sense of balance and good coordination. And of course they must have a head for heights better than most humans!
They don’t just climb up steep slopes, but can actually run across almost vertical inclines and can jump quickly across or downwards onto the smallest of ledges. They can even turn around on very steep drops.
They don’t need to take a run to make a jump. They can jump across large gaps from a standing start up to 4 metres across.
They can jump up to 2 metres high and 8 metres or so down.
They live along the snowline above the forests climbing anywhere up to 3,500 metres above sea level, looking for new meadows with lush grass to graze. They keep to the mountain tops all of their life.
When the babies are very young, their mothers keep below them in case they slip while they are still learning the skill of climbing. But it only takes a few days for a kid to develop its amazing skill for climbing and jumping.
Usually, the only time mountain goats fall is when they are flipped off the mountain by a rival in a fight and then plunge down through the air.
Otherwise, mountain goats are quite gregarious, that means they like to live together in herds – except for adult males who tend to live apart from the main herd for most of the time.
The females in the herd take up the dominant positions, and the males approach them with humility and respect.
Goats all over the world are known to have a liking for climbing and are very good at it.
They climb up trees to browse if there is not much food to be found on the ground. They climb on each other and even humans if they bend over and provide a flat surface with their back!
Goats are the best rock climbers of the animal world.
Bye bye everyone – don’t forget to subscribe to my blog!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bob: Do you know anything about Greek Mythology?
Bill: A bit
Bob: What is the name of the creature that is half man and half goat?
Bill: ls it Billy the Kid?
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com
Picture Gallery
Goat yoga
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
This week, we all went down to Sandy Cove because there is nothing better on a summer’s day to sit on a beautiful beach in the sunshine.
We walk along this sandy beach in the winter too; when the weather allows.
In the winter, we can be totally by ourselves; but this time of year it is very different.
The beach has lots of people coming and going. They could be coming from the town, the guest houses or the campsite.
We like to people-watch and sometimes we make up stories about them.
We give them names and guess what kind of jobs they do.
They can’t hear what we are saying because they are too far away, and we never ask them if we are right to check out our theories.
Some of our stories get really funny, but we are never nasty about people or poke fun at them.
It improves the children’s story-telling abilities to use their imaginations like this. They look at people as living characters of all types.
Children who spend a lot of time alone are good at using their imagination.
Children who spend a lot of time with others are good at communication.
It is good to do both.
Then when the children are at school, they write stories other than stories about children getting lost in the woods, children getting lost on the moors, children getting lost in a spooky castle and so on…
They can bottle up a lot of ideas to use in class!
Also please don’t forget to put water out for wildlife.
Lots of ponds and pools have dried up, and wildlife would be grateful for extra water being put out.
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Quick Quiz
Can you explain these?
- doing a 180
- thrice
- at a crossroads
- a two-way street
- the rule of three
- two-timing
- third time lucky
- at sixes and sevens
- to go off at a tangent
- The Pentagon
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE A DOLLS’ HOUSE GARDEN TABLE
So this is the project you can make using the lid of the stacker crisp box that you saved after making the project on last week’s blog post.
Find a bottle top of the right size and glue it to the bottom of the lid.
You will have a lovely table for your dolls to use in their garden.
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Quick Quiz Answers
- doing a 180 – completely changing your mind
- thrice – three times – once twice thrice – a word only really for poems nowadays
- at a crossroads – having to make a decision about where you are now going to go in life
- a two-way street – give and take – like in a relationship you have to care about what the other person wants not just about what you want
- the rule of three – three people making a decision so there won’t be much arguing – two people make the decision if three cannot agree
- two-timing – when someone has a steady girlfriend or boyfriend already and then goes out with someone else
- third time lucky – trying to do something three times before it works out – this very often happens because by this time you have had some practise
- at sixes and sevens – confused and erratic
- to go off at a tangent – to change the angle of a movement/to change the subject whilst having a conversation with someone/going off at angle onto a different track/leaving a task or project to go and do something else
- The Pentagon –a military headquarters in the USA (Washington DC)
