Goats are able to eat thorns primarily due to their prehensile tongues and their natural preference for browsing on woody plants and shrubs.
Unlike grazers that primarily eat grass, goats are browsers. This means they prefer to eat leaves, twigs, bark, and yes, thorny plants like blackberry canes. Their anatomy and eating habits are specifically adapted for this type of diet.
Key Adaptations for Eating Thorns
The most crucial adaptation mentioned in the reference is their prehensile tongues.
- What is a Prehensile Tongue? A prehensile tongue is highly muscular and agile, allowing the goat to grasp and manipulate vegetation with precision.
- How it Helps with Thorns: This dexterity allows goats to carefully navigate around the sharpest spines, strip leaves from thorny branches, or manipulate the thorny material in their mouths more effectively than animals with less agile tongues. The reference states their prehensile tongues "are well suited for eating shrubs, spines, and leaves". This suggests the tongue is a key tool for handling potentially harmful parts of plants.
- Selecting Food: The combination of their agile tongues and split upper lip also allows them to be selective eaters, picking out the most palatable parts of a plant, even within a thorny patch.
Browsing Behavior
Goats prefer to browse rather than graze. Instead of eating grasses, they focus on leaves and twigs found on taller plants, bushes, and trees. This natural behavior leads them to consume a wider variety of plant matter, including thorny species. Their digestive system is also well-equipped to handle the tougher, more fibrous material found in these plants compared to grass.
Summary of Adaptations
Here's a quick look at how goats are equipped for their diverse diet, including thorns:
| Adaptation | Benefit for Eating Thorns |
|---|---|
| Prehensile Tongue | Manipulate thorny plants, grasp leaves/twigs selectively. |
| Browsing Habit | Naturally seek out shrubs and woody plants, including thorny ones. |
| Digestive System | Handles roughage and varied plant matter. |
These combined traits make goats highly effective at clearing brush and unwanted vegetation, including dense thickets of thorny plants that other animals might avoid.
