{"id":59665,"date":"2024-05-27T05:46:24","date_gmt":"2024-05-27T05:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/27\/this-island-wants-to-round-up-its-wild-goats-catching-them-wont-be-easy\/"},"modified":"2024-05-27T05:46:24","modified_gmt":"2024-05-27T05:46:24","slug":"this-island-wants-to-round-up-its-wild-goats-catching-them-wont-be-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/27\/this-island-wants-to-round-up-its-wild-goats-catching-them-wont-be-easy\/","title":{"rendered":"This Island Wants to Round Up Its Wild Goats. Catching Them Won\u2019t Be Easy."},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/27\/multimedia\/27italy-goats-cztb\/27italy-goats-cztb-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,549&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"This Island Wants to Round Up Its Wild Goats. Catching Them Won\u2019t Be Easy.\" title=\"This Island Wants to Round Up Its Wild Goats. Catching Them Won\u2019t Be Easy.\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Come June, a crack team of wildlife experts plans to swarm the volcanic cliffs and natural caves of a small island in the Mediterranean to ensnare what has become an out-of-control species: goats gone wild.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It is the first step in a mission to rid the Aeolian island of Alicudi, just north of Sicily, of the hundreds of feral goats that are crowding out the island\u2019s 100 or so year-round human inhabitants, so that the animals can be adopted elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe are all for goats running free, but let\u2019s be clear: These aren\u2019t Heidi\u2019s kid goats,\u201d said Carolina Barnao, a council member in neighboring Lipari, which administers its fellow Aeolian islands. \u201cSome of them could even become dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After being seized on Alicudi, the goats will be rustled down to an enclosure near the island\u2019s port, tested for diseases and then hoisted onto a ship heading to Sicily, where they will spend two months in quarantine. Then, they can be adopted and taken to greener pastures.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Yet it is not as straightforward as it sounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For one thing, said Giovanni Dell\u2019Acqua, the regional government official overseeing the undertaking, the goats are fast and can leap 10 feet in a bound. They can also weigh as much as 175 pounds, he said \u2014 \u201cthink of what that means.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And while the animals will be penned up on Alicudi \u201cfor as short a time as possible,\u201d Mr. Dell\u2019Acqua said, officials still have not quite sorted out what kind of boat to use to safely transport the goats to the mainland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cTrust me,\u201d he said, \u201ccapturing the goats on an island like Alicudi is an uphill battle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Measuring two square miles, Alicudi is the least inhabited and most remote of the seven Aeolian islands off Sicily\u2019s northern coast. In the absence of cars and many other amenities, donkeys still hoist supplies up unpaved streets, and distances are measured in stair-steps from the port.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe island\u2019s allure is that there is nothing there,\u201d said Pietro Lo Cascio, a zoologist and nature guide on the Aeolian islands. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The goats themselves arrived about 35 years ago, when an islander sought to supplement food supplies from the mainland. At some point, the handful of goats got loose and were left to forage among the rugged terrain of the dormant volcano.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It did not take long for the ruminants to outnumber humans, delighting tourists by photobombing their summer memories. But locals grew irritated as the goats encroached on their gardens and fruit trees and leaped along the traditional dry stone walls that once terraced the island, knocking down many.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Emboldened over the years, the goats moved from the crest of the island into the lower, inhabited areas in search of ever-decreasing food supplies \u2014 \u201ceven people\u2019s homes,\u201d said Ms. Barnao, the council member, whose mandate for animal rights includes overseeing the goat giveaway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And although Alicudi is a nature reserve, the ballooning goat population has also put the island\u2019s biodiversity at risk.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lo Cascio said he<span class=\"css-8l6xbc evw5hdy0\">  <\/span>raised warnings about the growing goat population in 2008, when he was a member of the Lipari municipal council. At the time, he estimates, there were 200 to 300 goats on Alicudi.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Last year, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.regione.sicilia.it\/sites\/default\/files\/2024-03\/doc00382120240326113736.pdf\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a census<\/a> counted 600 goats, a six-to-one goat-to-human ratio, but Mr. Lo Cascio suspects that it is even higher.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">If action had been taken years ago, the situation \u201ccould have been resolved with a minimal effort,\u201d he said. \u201cToday it is a catastrophe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Yet Ms. Barnao said the adopt-a-goat program, which the regional government and local administration introduced this year via <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"http:\/\/www.comunelipari.it\/lipari\/po\/mostra_news.php?id=1664&amp;area=H\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a public notice<\/a>, had attracted considerably more requests for the goats than the number of animals available.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The wildlife experts will now try to catch as many goats as possible before the tourist season begins in mid-June.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Captured animals will be tagged so officials can keep tabs on \u201ctheir destiny,\u201d Ms. Barnao said. If the initiative is successful, she said, it will probably be replicated on other Aeolian islands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But not everyone thinks the goat getting is a great idea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThey could have found less cruel solutions\u201d than removing the goats from their familiar territory, said Lorenzo Croce of Aidaa, an animal rights group that filed a legal complaint in the hopes that local prosecutors and a regional court would stop the giveaway.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Aidaa had suggested that the goats be taken to a sanctuary in Italy for animals that have been saved from slaughter. \u201cThey have a right to die in tranquillity at the end of their natural lives,\u201d Mr. Croce said. But he said the proposal was rejected.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mourad Rekik, an expert in small ruminants at ICARDA, an international research center, said that introducing feral goats into a domestic flock \u201cusually happened quite smoothly.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Rekik warned that catching feral male goats could be a particular challenge \u2014 and, if the horns have developed, \u201ca little bit risky for the people\u201d doing the capturing. \u201cThese animals can probably defend themselves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">If the goats elude capture, Mr. Dell\u2019Acqua said, the team might have to \u201cresort to Plan B,\u201d which is to shoot and kill them, if they receive authorization to do so.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As it is, many locals are already exercising some form of goat population control by shooting and eating them, Mr. Dell\u2019Acqua said. \u201cTheir refrigerators are full, I can assure you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/27\/world\/europe\/alicudi-island-goats.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Come June, a crack team of wildlife experts plans to swarm the volcanic cliffs and natural caves of a small island in the Mediterranean to ensnare what has become an out-of-control species: goats gone wild. It is the first step in a mission to rid the Aeolian island of Alicudi, just north of Sicily, of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/27\/multimedia\/27italy-goats-cztb\/27italy-goats-cztb-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[57955,8768,23756,136,11084,2829],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59667,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59665\/revisions\/59667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}