Are goats the ultimate firefighting weapon?

California has an intense wildlife problem. Every summer, the state is at risk. But now, firefighters and officials have a new weapon against them: goats.

Since 1980, the fires in California have become more intense and extensive. According to the state Fire Department, in 2021, a terrible year, wildfires destroyed more than 2.5 million acres.

According to Cal Fire, extreme heat is one of the main reasons fires have become more intense and extensive in the last decades. Still, poor land management also plays a role.

Death trees and dry shrubs are a fire hazard, and getting rid of them can be tricky for humans, especially in hard-to-reach places. For goats, that is just food.

The Sacramento Fire Department has used goat gazing since 2013, and the results have been great. According to CBS, the agency credited the animals with helping save a housing complex in a 2022 fire.

The LA Fire Department joined in 2018, and since then, the strategy has been spreading throughout the state, Karen Launchbaugh, an ecology professor at the University of Idaho, told the BBC.

The business of leasing goats to Fire Departments, institutions, or individuals is also growing. Michael Choi, who runs a family company, told the BBC he had to buy more goats to keep up with the demand.

According to NPR, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection allocated a grant for a pilot program to test if goats can reduce fire risk in a state reserve.

For an example of how goats can guard protected areas from fires, California can look down to South America, where Chile also employs goats to prevent fires.

Image: Francisco Kemeny / Unsplash

According to Reuters, the system has helped Chilean authorities protect the native forest Bosques de Chacay in the southern city of Santa Juana, which suffered wildfires in 2023.

"Fires surrounded the park, but it ended up being the only green spot left," Rocio Cruces, cofounder of the native park, told the news agency.

Launchbaugh told the BBC that goats have the perfect anatomy to help with land management. The shape of their mouth allows them to harvest woody shrubs.

Aside from their narrow, deep mouths, the expert explained they can eat poisonous plants because they can detoxify compounds, so there are few plants they cannot eat.

Goats can also reach very tough places that may be hazardous for workers. They can reach areas 2 meters high and eat at very high temperatures.

Goat gazing is a cleaner method. It was the traditional method before it was replaced with machines and chemical herbicides that can kill other helpful plants.

So, the land management that would be difficult for workers becomes easy for goats. "Goats are natural mountaineers," businessman Michael Choi told the BBC, "they eat almost everything."