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#1
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01-16-2011, 04:14 AM
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 ★ ********* ★ Poster Rank:251 Male Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 5,547
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Crazy Goats Climb Near-vertical 160ft Dam
These are Alpine Ibex, a species of wild goat that lives in the mountains of the European Alps. They're wandering across the face of the near-vertical 160ft dam on Cignino Lake, in Northern Italy. They are actually grazing, licking the stonework to obtain mineral salts. I post it here because i think they're funny, but feel free to move it to General Topics of Interest and Research       http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1BBdrC3rg http://www.juzaforum.com/forum/viewt...?f=53&t=136957 http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/buffalobill.asp |
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#2
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01-16-2011, 06:20 AM
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 ♚ Legacy Gold Member ♚ Poster Rank:199 Female Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 7,749 7,749Posts 11,996Thanked 709Quoted 5Mentioned 0Contrib. |
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Re: Crazy Goats Climb Near-vertical 160ft Dam
Holy cow, I'd have a heart attack if I looked over there and saw them! I am the type that would want to 'rescue' them even though they're fine. I get dizzy just looking at them on that incline.
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#4
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01-16-2011, 09:02 AM
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 ✝Mudderator from Hell✝ Poster Rank:10 e-mail Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 96,873
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Re: Crazy Goats Climb Near-vertical 160ft Dam
That's some cool shit  |
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#7
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01-16-2011, 02:35 PM
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 My Rank: STAFF SERGEANT Poster Rank:817 Male Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 961 961Posts 45Thanked 1Quoted 0Mentioned 0Contrib. |
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Re: Crazy Goats Climb Near-vertical 160ft Dam
why the fuck would they go up there if there is plenty of grass below!?!  |
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#9
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01-17-2011, 01:41 AM
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| ★ ********* ★ Poster Rank:251 Male Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 5,547
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Re: Crazy Goats Climb Near-vertical 160ft Dam
Thanks everyone for your replies and comments Zoologists realized the why relatively soon: Alpine Ibex follow two different types of diet, depending on the season. From the fall of Summer to the end of Winter, they follow an almost salt-free diet, they graze grass, just like cattle. But when Spring comes, they need to start a strongly salt-based diet, so they look desperately for salt-rich rocks cropping up from the ground. But salt-rich rocks are rare to find in the area, while the rocks the Dam is made of are extremely rich of salt: this is why it has become their self service restaurant  Here you can clearly see one of them licking the rock, lolTheir secret is their split hoof, whose cleft is wider than on any other species alike: the hoof also has a hard wall that can grab on to steep cliffs and a soft, rubbery inside that serves as a "stopper" when the animal is pushed forward by gravity.  Their only enemy, in nature, are humans: during XIX century they had been almost exterminated by hunters.  Almost no other animals hunt for them, because in that environment they are too hard to catch.
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