We were using my lake to shoot a spec video segment for a local fishing program. It was a gorgeous fall day, colors in the trees and sky were beautiful. The first part of the shoot went fine, the big bass were cooperating. Got some great shots of the fishing team bringing in some nice 3-5 lb large mouths. The goats would wander over to see what was going on, then lose interest and leave after discovering there were no cookies involved, a serious oversight by craft services in their mind. We moved over to the north side of the lake and after a few minutes I kept hearing this low frequency rumble in the headphones. I'd turn around to see what it was and the noise would stop. The goats had followed us over but they seemed to be grazing as normal. I'd go back to shooting and pretty soon the grinding, rumbling noise would start up again. After four blown takes I told the fishing team to move around to the other side for some long shots and panned the camera around to see if I could find the source of the noise. Facing away but watching the monitor I found out what it was. The goats were crunching acorns. With their big body cavities the crunching noise was magnified at the low end of the scale, almost like a rumble. We all had a good laugh over that. I've seen them eat leaves, grass, weeds, vines, even pine needles but I had no idea they would eat acorns. But once I started paying attention I would see them doing it. The squirrels sit up in the tree and fuss at them for hoovering all their stash. Their jaws must be more powerful than I gave them credit for. They are definitely seeking them out. They have plenty of forage and I stock hay for them besides the pasture. I started worrying about oak poisoning, but they're all fat and happy. Anyone ever seen an actual case of oak poisoning in their animals? Besides the acorns they'll vacuum up the oak leaves like candy. It can't be too bad for them.
very funny yup goats love acorns. I have never experienced a goat get poisoned by oak leaves or acorns - its a myth in my opinion
What was surprising was the timber of the sound. It was like a rumble. Deep grinding, a vibration as much as a sound. On a video shoot you'd note that as an off-axis low frequency ambient. Microphones react differently to sound than our ears and for some reason my mics loved that crunching sound. I was between the talent and the animals and was hearing the ambient through the lav mics they were wearing. Then when I'd turn around the goats would look up and the noise would stop. Makes sense now but at the time it was really irritating. What the *%$) is that noise!
I had a wether with no common sense who was not used to having free access forage around oak trees once(the farm I got him from was an orange farm). He came with me to a friend's house and pigged out on their oak leaves while he was there. By the time we were ready to leave in an hour or two he was standing there looking rather sleepy eyed and was being very quiet by himself(normally he was always looking for attention). When we got him home by nighttime he began to vomit everywhere. I was so worried about him, he was so listless. By the next day he had recovered, but I never let him eat more than a few mouthfulls of oak leaves again after that. I think some people don't see problems because their goats are either used to free access and don't tank up on a "new" taste, or they perhaps know it gives them a bellyache already from trying it themselves? :? Either way, I'd keep an eye on them when they do it if I were you...
