I read several articles in COUNTRYSIDE regarding goat and sheep raising. Unfortunately I could not find any information on whether it is possible to crossbreed these animals. Maybe you can help me. - Gus

Sheep and goats very rarely produce a live hybrid.

If a buck (billy) goat is mated to a ewe sheep, there will be no fertilization, and therefore, no pregnancy.

But if a ram sheep is crossed with a doe (nanny) goat, the goat can become pregnant, and then will almost always abort the offspring approximately two months after conception.

There have been reports of doe goats that successfully carried their sheep-crossed offspring to full term, with a resultant live birth. I am aware of only four having occurred naturally in modern history. They were from Jamaica, Botswana, Chile, and Malta.

They all had certain traits in common: They had the head of the sheep, body of the goat, legs of sheep, and a tail that hangs downward, like a sheep, rather than tightening upward, like a goat's.

The barrier to successful crossing between the two species is genetic: A sheep has 54 chromosomes, while a goat has 60.

The only carefully-studied specimen of a naturally-occuring "Geep" (the cross-bred animal) was the one in Botswana. It had 57 chromosomes, making it exactly half-way between a goat and a sheep.

That particular animal looked like some of the geeps that were produced in laboratories in Britain, California and Australia.

The Botswana animal was also nicknamed "Rapist" because of his incessant urge to breed any animal (goat, sheep, or others) and did so even when they weren't in their natural heat cycle. The owners had to castrate the Geep, because of all the trouble he caused.

The breeding of the Botswana animal was a result of keeping a ram sheep in an enclosure with a doe goat for a long period of time.

Certainly there is no need, nor would there be any profitable result in attempting to induce a mating between a ram and a nanny goat. They always result in the worst of both parents. In fact, it is assumed that more than 99% of such matings end in abortions a few weeks before normal birth.

The only incentive would be the greater meatiness and rapid growth of sheep, together with the goat's wider appetite for woody vegetation.

This combination-though not the result of a sheep/goat cross-is currently available in the "Angola/Massai" type Red Damara sheep. For information on that special African-type sheep, I would recommend that you contact Helmut Lang. He is very knowledgeable about the Red Angola Damara, and has always been willing to share what he knows. I recommend you get breeding stock from him too, if you'd like super hardy sheep that require no shearing or special care. Helmut's stock has successfully lambed outdoors in snow and ice, at temperatures well below zero (F). Here is his address and e-mail: Helmut Lang, RR 2 Mabel Lake Road 2041, Lumby, BC, VOE 2GO Canada. (Please enclose a SASE if you would like a reply.) - Nathan Griffith, Editor, sheep! Magazine

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