[Animals] Tree-Climbing Goats: Instinct, Survival, or Animal Cruelty?

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Drought, desperation and tourism combine to create a contested scenario in Morocco.

Some farmers in Morocco have been putting goats up trees for years to attract tourists.

 

ESSAOUIRA, MOROCCO. It's a challenging Friday morning for Jaouad Benaddi. He has been trying to get his goats to climb an argan tree and settle on its twisted, thorny branches. None of the 12 is cooperating.

Eager to help, Benaddi's 13-year-old son, Khalid, grabs a bag of grain and climbs up the tree. One of the goats babbled and began to follow him. Khalid climbs higher among the widely spaced branches holding a bag of grain to encourage her to join him. He pauses for the goat to catch up and eat for a moment, then grabs her neck to pull her to him. She resists and jumps out of the tree.

 

 

The boy and the goat repeat the process three times, until Khalid places her on a small wooden platform, where she readjusts her balance and stops moving. Perseverance is needed for the rest of the goats to be fulfilled. Some must be maneuvered like cargo on their platforms. In the end, a dozen goats stood unsteadily still, displayed like living ornaments in the canopy of the argan tree.

The climbing goats of Morocco have been in the news in recent years. Often described as a unique natural phenomenon in the North African country, its climbing is somewhat instinctive: the goats are attracted by the fruits of the argan trees and, agile as they are, climb to reach the pulpy treats.

 

Animal welfare advocates and environmentalists say that keeping goats in argan trees for hours is bad for the animals and bad for the trees.

 

Mauro Belloni, an Italian student who stopped by the Benaddi tree, looks bewildered as he watches the scene. "It's amazing," he says. "I thought the goats were fake when I saw their photos. But they are real, they are posing."

Morocco is experiencing its worst drought in decades, making it increasingly difficult for farmers to grow crops in this western Marrakech-Safi region. In the early 2000s, some began climbing goats up trees to get tips from tourists. The source of income was obtained when the COVID-19 pandemic began. But after the restrictions ended, the goat display business resumed, and with it, criticism from animal welfare advocates like Liz Cabrera Holtz, director of the Wildlife Campaign for World Animal Protection, a global nonprofit organization. for-profit organization based in the UK.

"The animals are being mani[CENSORED]ted and exploited," he denounces. "They don't move freely. They don't have access to food, water, or even shade. Being forced to stay in trees for hours is not normal behavior."

"Flying Goats"
Goats perched in Morocco's trees are "trained to make like a show," explains Marrakech-based tour guide Mohamed Elaamrani.

“They can climb trees and even mountains, and they're really good at it. Some of my guests refer to them as flying goats. They want to see them because there is nothing like it anywhere else in the world.”

 

Nine different herds, including Benaddi's, can be seen gracing the trees along the 100-kilometre road from ancient Marrakesh to Essaouira, a bright and windy city on the Atlantic coast po[CENSORED]r with tourists.

The goats are usually on their feet from late morning to mid-afternoon, when traffic is heaviest between the two cities. Goats can also be seen in the trees further south near Agadir in the Souss-Massa region.

"They are like mushrooms, they are everywhere," says Elaamrani.

The Benaddi argan is the second to come out of Marrakech. Expect that when drivers stop, they leave a generous tip. "Some pay 10 dirhams (approximately one dollar)," he says. Some even give 10 dollars. "It's not like selling potatoes: there is no fixed price." Benaddi relates that money is crucial for the care of his wife, his five children and his animals: two sheep and a donkey, as well as goats.

 

The man reviews that he started putting goats on the tree in 2019 after his wheat crop failed. Back then, on a good day, at least 10 vehicles would pull up and take a house for around $20. Then, during the lockdown, all but one of his 13 goats arose from starvation. Since February, when Morocco reopened, Benaddi has acquired a new herd: the dozen animals he and Khalid climbed into the tree that Friday morning. But now, hopefully, three cars just watched.

It takes up to six months to train the goats, explains Benaddi. “They are very intelligent, they are like people. The only thing they can't do is talk," he adds with a smile. “But some of them are very stubborn. They like to roam." The training involves luring the goats to the tree with the argan fruit and grain and pushing them into place with a stick. Baby goats are often tied to tree trunks so that tourists can easily pick them up and take photos with them.

Mustapha Elaboubi, another herder on the road from Marrakech to Essaouira, says he doesn't bother training his goats. He and his helpers simply lift the animals up the tree. “They try to jump at first, so we keep picking them up and putting them back down,” Elaboubi details. "Eventually, they learn there's no point in trying."

Do goats ever hurt themselves?
Elaamrani says that customers who ask to visit the tree-climbing goats find that the experience often falls short of their expectations. “Some people felt uncomfortable. They worry and ask how the goats get in and out of the trees. They want to know if they ever get hurt."

 

Adnan El Aji, a veterinarian from Essaouira, replies that the goats are resilient and can cope with stressors such as heat and water scarcity. But making them stand in trees for hours in Morocco's summers (when temperatures can soar to over 40 degrees) can lead to heat stress and dehydration.

This can cause animals to fall from trees and be injured. Thus, he tells of the time a tourist brought a goat that had fallen and needed treatment for a broken leg. "The tourist paid for it," he recalls.

Back at Benaddi's argan tree, when it's time for his goats to come home, 11 go down easy. Khalid climbs up to coax the straggler (a female), while his older brother Abdelmajid throws small stones at her, then uses a stick to stir the branch she is standing on. The goat staggers and crashes to the ground, a fall of about 3.6 meters. After a few tries, she struggles to her feet, and as the others walk toward her pen, she hangs back, limping.

Although Morocco is a member of the World Organization for Animal Health, the body responsible for evaluating the health and welfare of animals internationally, the country lacks strict animal protection laws, says Cabrera Holtz.

In 2021, when the nonprofit World Animal Protection ranked 50 countries based on their animal-related laws and political commitments, Morocco was one of only seven to receive a failing grade.

The organization assesses animal welfare according to five themes: nutrition (access to food and water), environment (comfort), health (freedom from pain and injury), behavior (freedom to express natural habits), and mental status (psychological well-being). ). Goats forced to climb trees for the pleasure of tourists were mistreated in all five, Cabrera Holtz points out.

 

"Although the activity may seem benign, it is animal cruelty," he says. Tourists, he adds, “essentially got photos of living things. What is happening here is not natural. It's coercive, and any time you introduce an element of coercion, it's not relevant whether their bodies can stand on trees."

Asma Kamili, head of the Animal Health Division of the World Organization for Animal Health in Morocco, says she is not aware that goats in the Essaouira region climb trees to earn money from tourism. He says that climbing trees is "a natural behavior" for animals and is good for argan trees because if the goats eat the fruits and disperse the seeds in their feces, that increases the number of trees.

José Fedriani, an ecologist at the Desertification Research Center (an institute in Spain dedicated to studying environmental degradation in drylands) agrees that seed dispersal is a good thing. But he warns that goats don't just eat fruit; they are devouring leaves and seedlings. Argan trees take 7 to 15 years to reach maturity and produce fruit, so putting several goats in an area where they can destroy seedlings, especially drought, actually prevents the trees from rejuvenating.

Using goats as aerial visual appeal is good "for attracting tourists," adds Fedriani, "but it's not good for trees at all."

About half a mile from the Benaddi argan tree, Miloud Banaaddi – who has also had to give up farming and is training her eight new goats to perch on her almond tree – rejects any idea that what she is doing is cruel. "The goats are only in the trees for three or four hours at a time," he acknowledges. "Imagine if they had them inside the house": they would be locked up and starve. "Where would the money come from to feed them? There is nothing else to do. There is no work. There are no other solutions. This is the

 

"There has to be a system"
Drought conditions in Morocco are expected to intensify by mid-century, according to the country's Ministry of Agriculture.

"This should all be green by now, but you can see it's completely dry," says Benaddi, pointing to the landscape surrounding the argan tree. "I would rather not spend money on feeding the goats: they have food everywhere."

 

The man explains that he had no interest in using his goats as roadside attractions until it became too dry to grow wheat. “I am doing a job, the goats are doing a job,” he says. “The money we earn is used to buy food for all of us, my family and the goats.”

Daniel Bergin, associate director of Globescan, a sustainability consulting firm, has studied animal welfare in Morocco and sympathizes with Benaddi and other farmers like him. "Obviously, you can't take away someone's livelihood," he clarifies, referring to calls by animal welfare advocates to shut down the tree-goat business. “There has to be a system in place. The government needs to work with the people.”

Take the bear dance in India, mentions Bergin. In the old days, the cubs were poached in the wild and disturbed to dance in the streets for tourists. In 2012, the Indian government condemned the practice as cruel and made it possible for bear owners to take jobs at animal sanctuaries.

"At least it engaged the people who would have been left without livelihoods and helped them continue to work while improving the lives of the animals," says Bergin.

Elaamrani, whose livelihood depends on the tour groups she runs, says she would rather see the goats roaming free and climbing for fruit whenever they want. But after two years of pandemic lockdown, he says he can't afford the luxury of turning his clients away. “They are paying to see something. But I try to explain the situation in an honest way. It is not a question of black and white. It's hard on the goats, but it's also hard on the people who care for them."

 

Benaddi says that in an ideal world, the land would once again be fertile. He would go back to farming and take care of his family and goats without having to stand by the side of the road every day waiting for people to stop and tip him.

“We hope for the best. But only God knows the future."

 

Link: https://www.nationalgeographicla.com/animales/2022/06/cabras-trepadoras-de-arboles-instinto-supervivencia-o-crueldad-animal