Tragedy struck my homestead recently.
One of my goats died, and he was one of a bonded pair.
I still have a bigger herd with other goats to comfort them, but it’s really not been easy on the one who lost his pal.
He’s been doing a bit better, but there’s been a very clear change in his behavior over the last few days.
They’ve all been a bit different, even seeming to gather round the goat who lost his best pal.
All of this got me wondering, then, whether goats grieve—so I decided to look into it.
So, do goats grieve?
Yes, goats grieve. Herd animals, perhaps above all, have an incredibly strong sense of loss when a member of the herd dies. It’s hard on the whole herd, but particularly on any bonded pairs. Goats are highly sociable animals, and even become sad at the death of a companion.
While it might be hard for some to accept the use of the word ‘grieve’ when applied to any animal, the fact is it had to develop from somewhere in us.
Though we have more complex relationships with one another than any other animal, that sense still had to have evolved somewhere down the line.
Let’s look further into this.
Do goats grieve their dead?
Yes, they do.
In fact, we can observe such behavior in more or less all herd creatures, and many other social animals.
I am not talking about any kind of ritual procession, or even necessarily any behavior we might understand as grieving.
But their behavior will change in clear and quantifiable ways.
The degree of this change will also be affected by how close the individual goats were.
When a member of the herd dies, depending on the size of the herd, they are all going to grieve to some extent.
The exact character of this grief is going to vary between individual goats.
Goats, though, like cattle, often form intimate, one on one relationships with “best friends”—they don’t mate for life, so we are just talking about friendship.
In these cases, when one member of the friendship dies, then the other is to grieve deeply.
They will become depressed, even to the extent that it’s very difficult to treat.
Mothers will also grieve deeply if they lose a kid.
Does this mean they get sad, too?
Do goats get sad?
Yes, is the simple answer.
Again, though we understand sadness largely as a human emotion, it had to develop from somewhere.
There are innate, evolutionary advantages to having feelings of sadness.
Again, it’s quite clear to see that goats get sad in quantifiable and obvious ways.
They will become reclusive, they may not want to eat, they may even begin to self-harm.
Sadness in goats manifests exactly like clinical depression in humans in the worst cases.
As a goat owner, you do need to take a certain amount of care in this area.
The death of members of the herd can have a huge knock-on effect on the rest of the herd.
Again, often the worst cases of this are with mothers who lose young kids.
The effects of this can be massive, and how else can we understand it except as grief?
It’s really important to recognize the psychological complexity of goats when you get into owning them, otherwise you may not be able to provide adequate support in these cases.
What are the signs of sadness, then?
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How does a goat act when sad?
It’s going to depend on the severity of the sadness.
It will be generally very low energy; it won’t show much interest in you or in food.
It may not want to be around the rest of the herd, and will spend all of its time indoors.
It will only eat the bare minimum, or not at all.
This is really in the worst cases.
Self-harm is another thing to look out for.
They may start attempting to scratch themselves against posts, or other similar detrimental behavior.
Goats without appetite, that won’t eat, are in serious danger.
This can definitely be the result of sadness and grief.
What can you do to help?
How do you help a grieving goat?
The first piece of advice I can give you is to treat the sadness and grief as a clinical, medical condition, just like you would with any illness.
This doesn’t mean you need to call a goat therapist.
But you should call the vet.
The vet should always be your first point of contact.
They will be able to properly judge the goat’s behavior, and tell you the appropriate level of treatment.
It’s going to start with patience, though.
Your goat will need time to process its loss, especially if it was a very close one.
If the goat was lifelong friends with the lost goat, there’s going to be no easy
As much attention as you can give it is essential.
Also, make sure to encourage it to interact with the other goats as much as possible.
If you only had a pair, it’s really vital you find a new goat to come in and take the place of its companion.
Goats are highly complex creatures, emotionally speaking.
Their lives are a social experience, always together with other members of their species, never alone for long.
Because of this, they have a very strong sense of companionship, even individuality.
It is not at all surprising that they should have the capacity to grieve their dead, then, and that the loss of close members of the herd should cause them to have this reaction.