How could you not love fainting goats?

Call me insensitive, call me cruel to animals… but the sight of these goats flipping on their backs with all four feet straight up in the air like some cartoon, I just love it. The goats are no worse for wear; it can happen to them even if they are excited by a call to eat, and they recover after a few seconds, getting back up no worse for wear.

The mutation in the goats causes them to have an exaggerated startle reflex which stiffens all their legs when they get excited. The older, more experienced goats learn to simply brace themselves upright, while the younger goats topple sideways or upside down, all four legs woodenly splayed. This causes the bizarre-looking reaction where a herd of goats, being startled by an opening umbrella or the like, begin to bolt for a split second–then all goats, as if on cue, simultaneously freeze, half of them standing, half of them toppling.

According to the breeders, the goats cannot startle each other–they mate, butt heads, and do general roughhousing just fine.