Goats mate during the fall, which is known as their typical mating season. Both male and female goats show signs of being ready to mate. A female goat will only accept a male mate when they come into heat. But did you know how male goats attract their mates?
Male goats urinate on their heads to make themselves more appealing to females. To capture and preserve the strong musky scent, male goats will spray their own urine inside their legs, on their beards, and on their faces.
Male Goat Mating Ritual Explained
During the rut, male bucks generally pee all over their front legs and beard. When female goats urinate outwards towards them, an irresistible scent is created that masks any other smells they may have at that time of year due to secretions from glands on the head or around testicles spraying themselves down in their urine, covering everything in sight, including beards, chests, face hoods, and so on.
The bucks smell when they are in a rut, which begins in July when the days start to shorten. They have scent glands behind their horns that produce most of the genuinely offensive bucky odor. We burn the area behind the horn on the bucks to destroy those glands when we disbud the goats and burn off the site of their horns, so they do not grow, it does not make them smell like posies, but it does make them smell better. (Source: Modern Farmer)
How Does the Urinating Help?
They also pee on their heads to make themselves more appealing to females. They scratch their heads in the dirt where the deer pee. The buck’s head is covered in mud and urine, and he is very proud of his odor. The bucks are still friendly, and they frequently come over to rub to get the flies off or scratch their heads.
Bucks always smell, but the rut makes them smell even worse. They will urinate more frequently than at any other time of year. Bucklings, or young male goats, usually begin to smell like bucks when they reach sexual maturity. Bucklings can become sexually mature as early as two months of age, so you might have a stinky youngster.
Bucks have a strong musky odor from their scent glands near their horns and urine, spraying on their face, beards, front legs, and chest. They usually spray themselves during the rut, when they are in estrus. Rut usually occurs from late summer to fall, and it is during this time that the buck smells the most. (Source: Modern Farmer)
The Seductive Dance
When a buck decides a doe is ready to mate, he’ll often run next to her, nuzzling her side and back with his tongue out and his front legs and ears jutting forward, all while hooting and hollering like a country boy at a monster truck rally.
This is known as the rush-grumble. The noises sound like whining, mewing, snuffling, and clucking, almost like an old dog’s squeaky toy. The pair then pranced around for a while before the party began. Females go into heat every 21 days on average, lasting up to three days. During this time, the doe’s heat cycle rises and falls, and she will only mate if her cycle is on the rise, known as standing heat. (Source: Modern Farmer)
Image from: Modern Farmer