The Great Goat War in The Galapagos (Project Isabela)

The Great Goat War in The Galapagos (Project Isabela):
A lot of people have heard about the Great Emu war. But have you ever heard of the Great goat war?

In the 1950's whalers left some goats on the Galapagos Islands. I guess they figured what's the worst that could happen? Well, the goats trapped on a tropical island hundreds of miles from shore, really only had two things to do: eat…. and the other thing….

So the goats got to doing their thing and after 14 years their population had boomed to more than 30,000 and by the 90's more than a quarter-million. The goats were eating so much vegetation, they were actually endangering several local species like the famed Galapagos Tortoise. So a private group, backed by hundreds of thousands of dollars began hunting the goats to save the island.

Originally men patrolled the islands on foot and shot any goats they saw, but this wasn’t efficient or fast enough. In an extreme case of escalation, they brought in helicopters to herd the goats into open fields while armed sharpshooters sent them to goat Jesus. This helped wipe out 90% of the goat population, but 10% of 250,000 goats is still a LOT of goats.

Eventually, after much goat bloodshed, the humans managed to wipe out the last remaining goats.

The lesson of the story, sometimes conservation work is a lot more interesting than you would expect, and a few invasive species today can turn into a huge problem tomorrow.

Watch the full video to learn more!

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Видео The Great Goat War in The Galapagos (Project Isabela) канала Everything Science