LLANDUDNO, WALES - MARCH 31: Mountain goats roam the streets of LLandudno on March 31, 2020 in Llandudno, Wales. The goats normally live on the rocky Great Orme but are occasional visitors to the seaside town, but a local councillor told the BBC that the herd was drawn this time by the lack of people and tourists due to the COVID-19 outbreak and quarantine measures. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
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The Goats Shall Inherit the Earth

Or at least Wales
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Jessica Mason
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Published: Mar 31, 2020 04:27 pm

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Coronavirus asked the local goats of Wales if they wanted to live deliciously, and the answer was of course yes. Thanks to the streets being cleared of human beings due to social distancing and self-isolation, the streets of the small Welsh coastal town of Llandudno have become overrun with beautiful goats.

Llandudno is a small town of about 15,o00 located on a peninsula in the North of Wales. Up until now the town was a quaint little resort spot full of cute shops. To the Northwest of the town is an area called the Great Orme and which is home to a herd of feral, wild goats. Yup. Nature is reclaiming the world. Well, Wales at least.

These are actually pretty special goats. They’re called Great Orme Kashmiri Goats, and there are about 200 in the wild around the great Orme. And yes, that’s Kashmiri as in India, but they came to the UK by way of Persia. The Shah of Persia apparently gifted queen Victoria a pair of goats for her coronation in 1837 and they bred and somehow ended up wild in this one part of Wales. Wild.

LLANDUDNO, WALES - MARCH 31: Mountain goats roam the streets of LLandudno on March 31, 2020 in Llandudno, Wales. The goats normally live on the rocky Great Orme but are occasional visitors to the seaside town, but a local councillor told the BBC that the herd was drawn this time by the lack of people and tourists due to the COVID-19 outbreak and quarantine measures. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
The goats of Llandudno are mainly doing what goats do: eating. They’ve been snacking on grass and looking fabulous. They’ve also, understandably, become a social media sensation.

Oh yes, as that tweet reminds us, we can’t forget that these aren’t the only animals that have taken to the streets now that the humans are all inside. A tiktok and tweet purport to show boars roaming the streets of Bergamo, Italy, but that hasn’t been verified. We’re cautious because some of the other viral shots of animals taking advantage of our social distancing have not been real.

Dolphins in Venice? Fake. And the swans in the canals were there before the coronavirus. Drunken elephants in China? Also fake. There’s a lot of nonsense out there and people can very easily make up a story to go with a cool picture and get 100,000 likes off of it. Which is what makes the goats of Llandudno so charming: they’re keeping it real.

Maybe one day, we too will come down from our isolated mountain and reclaim our streets. But I doubt we’ll look as good.

(via: CNN, Image: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

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Image of Jessica Mason
Jessica Mason
Jessica Mason (she/her) is a writer based in Portland, Oregon with a focus on fandom, queer representation, and amazing women in film and television. She's a trained lawyer and opera singer as well as a mom and author.
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