All Glory to the Hypnogoat

I was watching an episode of Dirty Jobs the other night, in which a goat was prominently featured.  Now, I don't have a lot of personal experience with goats, so the very first thought I had while watching was, "Holy crap those are weird eyes."  Mike Rowe even commented on it in the show, and the vet said something about the shape being an herbivore prey adaptation for better vision or something, but this was the vet that was performing goat acupuncture at the time, so I was a little dubious.

She was right, though.  Many of the ruminant mammals have "slit-form pupils," an adaptation that is believed to improve peripheral vision.  It is basically analogous to the more familiar vertical slit of a cat's eye (also seen in some foxes), although the different orientation probably translates to sensitivity to a different type of motion-- spotting possible predators instead of tracking small prey.

At any rate, the only reason it's more visible in goats as opposed to the other animals (sheep, zebras, horses, etc) is that goats tend to have pale irises, making their pupils more visible.  A cow's slit-form pupil, by contrast, is often lost in their soulful brown eyes.

And just for some extra bonus info, since we're discussing goats-- it is (according to the above episode of Dirty Jobs) illegal for anyone to perform acupuncture unless they are a licenced goat-cupuncturist or the legal owner of the goat in question.  This led to an amusing bit where Mike Rowe had to purchase the goat for 5 bucks for the duration of the shoot so he could participate as planned.  I don't know if this was a state statute or a federal one, but regardless-- no sticking needles into other people's goats!  It's not just a good idea, it's THE LAW.