Goat thinks it's a chicken

A rejected Lilo started following around a chicken thinking it was her mom.

Durban - Tiny one-month old dwarf Cameroon goat Lilo is doing well at Crocworld Conservation Centre, despite a shaky start to life when she was rejected by her mother.

Lilo was born on August 17 along with a male. Dwarf Cameroon goat females have one to three kids per pregnancy.

“This is the first time we have seen a mother reject her offspring,” said Martin Rodrigues, Crocworld centre manager. “She accepted the male but the female was rejected. We kept a very close eye on developments and noticed that the goat was being butted away by the mother when Lilo went to drink from her.

“We also noticed that Lilo was following one of the large chickens that shares the enclosure with the goats, and thought this was her mother.

“Crocworld management took the decision to remove Lilo from her mother as she was not caring for her and we have hand-reared her since day one, taking it in turns to take her home with us to our families in the evenings.”

Rodrigues and tour guide, Caleb Rowberry, took it in turns to nurse her back to health by bottle-feeding her every two to three hours.

Lilo weighed just over 1kg when she was born and now weighs nearly 5kg.

She appears to be thriving and is still being bottle fed by staff, however, solid food has been introduced to her diet as well.

Lilo now spends most of her time during the day with the rest of the dwarf Cameroon goats in the centre’s children’s animal farm where visitors will have the opportunity to meet her.

Rodrigues said, “Lilo is a real character, she has become a member of our ever-growing family at the centre and we are fortunate to have had the opportunity to watch her grow and develop.

“Lilo is already one of our animal ambassadors and we invite members of the public to visit the centre and meet her.”

Independent on Saturday