Myotonic Goat

Myotonic Goat, widely known as the Fainting Goat or Tennessee Fainting Goat, is an American goat breed that developed in Tennessee in the nineteenth century from a small founding population, distinguished by a genetic condition called myotonia congenita that causes the animal's muscles to stiffen briefly when startled, often causing it to topple over stiffly for several seconds while remaining fully conscious. The trait, which does not cause pain or lasting harm, made the breed popular first as a novelty and later as a deliberately selected characteristic, with some farmers historically valuing the goats' tendency to stiffen and fall as a way of distracting predators from more valuable stock. Myotonic Goats are raised today mainly for meat and increasingly as pets and show animals, valued for calm temperament, hardiness and the breed's distinctive trait. Myotonia congenita, the underlying muscle condition, has also drawn scientific interest as a naturally occurring animal model of the same disorder found in humans.