Goats Scale Dam in Italy

[n2doc]

Gravity-Defying Goats
Photograph by Adriano Migliorati/Caters News

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.

In truth, Adriano Migliorati snapped the pictures at the 160-foot-tall (49-meter-tall) Cingino Dam (see map of the region), the Italian hiker told National Geographic News via email. The goats are attracted to the dam's salt-crusted stones, according to the U.K.-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 U.S. West, according to Jeff Opperman, senior advisor for sustainable hydropower at the U.S.-based nonprofit the Nature Conservancy.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/11/photogalleries/101101-ibex-goats-dam-italy-bighorn-sheep-wyoming-science/

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Wow! Scary stuff for us acrophobics...

[Recursion]

2. Holy crap! NT

[Gregorian]

3. That's just crazy

I love goats. I'm getting some in my next property move. I can't wait. Maybe I'll have to make a salt dam for them.

[Skink]

4. Buford is that you?

[felix_numinous]

5. Mmmmm that's dam delicious!!