Best animal stories: Missing bull, a woolly sheep and goat quadruplets
From a sheep crossed with a goat, to a bull having his ACL operated on. We’ve rounded up some of the quirkiest animal stories.
The recent case of the missing bull at Yea got us talking about the weird and wacky animal stories we hear at The Weekly Times.
There’s the stories of “geeps” — that’s a sheep crossed with a goat — animals swallowing snakes and the expensive bull that had to have his ACL operated on.
We’ve rounded up some of the best stories.
Let us know what weird or wonderful animal stories you’ve come across.
YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING
What do you get when you cross a sheep with a goat?
Well, normally nothing, because while close in their genetic make-up, they are not close enough for a successful mating.
If a pregnancy does result the “geeps” (or is it “shoats”?) are usually stillborn — goats have 60 chromosomes and sheep have 54.
But back in 2014, an Irish farmer, Paddy Murphy — yes, really — from Ballymore Eustace reportedly bred a live geep.
Paddy Murphy saw a goat trying to mate with his Cheviot sheep but didn’t think anything of it until a nimble, black, horned kid-lamb turned up in Paddy’s flock.
It’s not the only story of a geep being born.
In 2011 farmer Terry Crompton discovered one of his ewe’s had given birth to a geep — named Oreo.
Oreo was born to a sheep but is a genetic throwback from its father — a ram with goat genes.
Apparently Oreo runs like a goat and has a goat’s face and feet but a sheep’s build.
THE VERY HUNGRY CHOOK
Lang Lang reader Fiona Glover recently sent in pictures of Dotty the chook, which belongs to poultry enthusiast Brett Batchaldor.
She is one of his prized Columbian Wyandotte hens which was clucky recently, and went searching for a healthy snack.
What must have looked like a large wiggly worm turned out to be a 60cm tiger snake.
Not one to play with her food, Dotty got most of it down her neck before Brett discovered the tail-end of venomous snake.
He and his partner Adele Sheedy pulled the snake out of Dotty, and she waddled off, had a drink and went back to egg-sitting duties.
Just a few days later Dotty hatched a dozen chicks.
THE CASE OF THE WALKABOUT BULL
Most farmers have searched in panic for a bull or ram, or they’ve got a call from a neighbour unimpressed about a visitor to their ewes or cows.
But, it’s not often you hear of someone having to hire a helicopter to look for a bull or report it to the police.
The story of Texas Powerplay P163, the $108,000 Angus bull missing for more than two weeks garnered national attention recently after he disappeared from Kelly’s Angus stud near Yea.
A few days after The Weekly Times first wrote about the missing bull Kelly Angus manager Patrick Joyce said Powerplay was found just 3km from home.
Mr Joyce said Powerplay had a slight injury to a leg and was hungry but passed a vet check.
He said the bull had turned up on a local property, sitting under a tree in a paddock with about 80 heifers.
“It is just unexplainable because he is a quiet bull, not a fence jumper,” Mr Joyce said.
“We really have no idea how he ended up there — we are just amazed and so thankful that we have him back.”
HITCHING A RIDE
Kate Nolan went for a bike ride with her son and daughter on their Goorambat farm when they came across this snake.
Last year Kate Nolan sent in this picture after she went for a bike ride with her son and daughter on their Goorambat farm when they came across this uninvited visitor.
The 5-foot long Eastern Brown snake came off second best when it got caught in the cog and chain of Kate’s son’s bike.
Kate thinks the snake may have got spooked by her daughter who rode past first, then reared up ready to strike when her son who was following rode past.
Luckily, everyone (except for the snake) walked away unharmed.
A FAMILY OF … HOW MANY?
A rare breed of goat did wonders for the population, when a doe gave birth to a set of quadruplets.
The set of quadruplet Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats was born in 2020 at the Hoffman family’s Kirrasumm Kidz Miniature Goat stud.
At the time they were the only full blood Nigerian Dwarf quadruplets to be born in Tasmania.
The quads, which are all bucks, ranged in weight from 900 grams up to 1500 grams.
The doe is an over-achiever, having given birth to a set of twins the previous year.
Owner of the goats, Sandra Hoffman said while quadruplets are quite common in the breed, they are still unusual in Australia due to the low numbers of full blood Nigerian Dwarfs in the country.
Nigerian Dwarfs are an American breed of dairy goat that first arrived in Australia in 2014.
SPRING IN HIS STEP
It’s an injury that often befalls AFL players — then they operate, get rehab and move on.
But for a bull, who has damaged their ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) it would normally mean on to the truck to the abattoir.
Not for Angus bull Te Mania Emperor E343.
The bull, bought for $91,000 in 2011 by a syndicate headed by Murdeduke Angus, suffered an ACL (knee) injury in the paddock in 2014 — probably on the job.
It was groundbreaking surgery for the 1250kg Emperor who was operated on at the Geelong Veterinary Clinic.
During the operation three veterinary surgeons used 700-pound Marlin fishing line and stainless steel plates to stabilise the joint.
While the operation, which cost about $5000, is common in dogs, it is unusual for a bull, mostly due to the sheer size and weight of the animal.
The last we heard Emperor wasn’t used to join naturally but he was still having semen collected and had, had a big influence on the breed with thousands of progeny born by him.
ROGUE SHEEP
Baarack, the Merino ram gained worldwide attention after he was found wandering the Cobaw State Forest near Lancefield early last year.
The sheep, believed to be about eight years old, had an overgrown fleece which weighed 35kg — at least five years’ worth of fleece.
Following his rescue, Baarack was being cared for at Edgar’s Mission, a not-for-profit farm sanctuary in Lancefield that caters for animals in need.
After the fleece was shorn, it was put on display at the National Wool Museum in Geelong last year.
Baarack is not the only sheep to have got lost and grown a big fleece.
The Guinness World Record for heaviest fleece is a whopping 41.1kg. That fleece is on display at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra and was taken from Chris, another wayward Merino found near Mulligans Flat in the ACT in 2015.
Chris died in 2019 and lived his later years at Little Oak Sanctuary.
A New Zealand sheep named Shrek, captured in 2005 after six years on the loose, cut a 27kg fleece.
YOU CAN’T MISS HIM
Knickers the giant steer made headlines around the world back in 2018.
There was so much talk about Knickers, some people overseas were saying he wasn’t real.
The 194cm, 1400kg Holstein steer made headlines when pictures of him on his Myalup farm in Western Australia went viral in November 2018.
Owners Geoff Pearson said at the time he had calls from the US, the UK, Canada and New Zealand.
Knickers just missed out on taking out the Guinness World Record title for the world’s largest steer, that title goes to Bellino, who lives in Italy and stands at 2.02 metres.
A year after Knickers found fame he made a celebrity appearance at the Brunswick Agriculture Show.
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