{"id":410833,"date":"2026-01-13T21:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T21:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/410833\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T21:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T21:24:09","slug":"feral-goats-headbutt-frenzy-causes-thousands-of-dollars-damage-to-cobar-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/410833\/","title":{"rendered":"Feral goat’s headbutt frenzy causes thousands of dollars damage to Cobar business"},"content":{"rendered":"

To look at the damage done to the glass on Shane Martin’s shopfront, you might think a robber or vandal had taken to it with a crowbar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the culprit responsible for the shattered glass had four legs rather than two \u2014 a feral goat.<\/p>\n

“Something like this doesn’t happen often,” Mr Martin said.<\/p>\n

The construction business owner from Cobar in western New South Wales had returned from holiday when a friend called to let him know his front door was shattered.<\/p>\n

When Mr Martin checked his CCTV cameras, he found 20 minutes of footage of a goat charging at the door and eventually breaking it.<\/p>\n

“I presume he’s caught a glimpse of his own reflection and thought, ‘Oh, I don’t like this guy,'” Mr Martin said.<\/p>\n

“He must have poked his head right through the door, but that’s as far as he got.<\/p>\n

“I was going to find the goat, but then we sat back and had a bit of a laugh.”\"Glass<\/p>\n

The owner of Cynend Building and Construction did not expect to see a four-legged intruder on CCTV. (Supplied: Shane Martin)<\/p>\n

Mr Martin said goats were not a common sight in the town, but recent dry weather might have driven some away from the nearby reservoir where they usually accessed water and feed.<\/p>\n

“It obviously wandered into town looking for a bit of green,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You do see goats on and off around town, especially when it gets a bit drier.”<\/p>\n

Mr Martin’s search for the four-legged culprit had so far been unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

“We never found the goat. He was merrily on his way by the time I got there.”<\/p>\n

Hangry goat<\/p>\n

Kristy DiGiacomo, a senior lecturer in production, animal nutrition and physiology at the University of Melbourne, said the goat’s behaviour was all about scarce resources.<\/p>\n

“Goats will headbutt for various reasons, including dominance, mating competition, defence, or just for play,” Dr DiGiacomo said.<\/p>\n

She said goats’ “personalities” can change with the amount of resources available.<\/p>\n

“Some [goats] are more likely to act aggressively when feeding, while others can be passive or avoiders,” Dr DiGiacomo said.<\/p>\n

“Aggressive behaviours tend to increase when access to feed is limited.<\/p>\n

“In this footage, the goat is likely viewing its reflection as a male competing for resources and is thus headbutting to try to scare it off for protection.”\"Broken<\/p>\n

Shane Martin expects the damage will cost around $4,000 to fix. (Supplied: Shane Martin)<\/p>\n

Damage bill<\/p>\n

Mr Martin said the goat destroyed the glass front door of his office and two panels.<\/p>\n

While he was yet to speak with his insurer, he estimated the damage bill at $4,000.<\/p>\n

“[The goat] didn’t manage to get inside, which was good,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Would have made a bit of a mess.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To look at the damage done to the glass on Shane Martin’s shopfront, you might think a robber…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[34126,64,63,99,33041,1865,28831,217381],"class_list":["post-410833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-animal-behaviour","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-cobar","tag-door","tag-goat","tag-headbutt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}