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Biomimetic Designers Take Note: Goat Hooves Confer Ninja-like Climbing Abilities

By Rain Noe - March 23, 2011

in design.edu

If you were my boss at an animal design firm and I submitted you this proposal sketch for a climbing animal, you'd probably think about firing me. There's nothing in the structure of this animal that suggests it would be good at scaling things.

Well, maybe you've seen these photos that National Geo ran last year by photographer Adriano Migliorati:

Those are Alpine Ibex goats scaling a dam in Italy to lick the salt off of the rocks. Question is, how the hell do those guys get up there and stay up there? Why isn't the bottom of the dam covered in shattered goat carcasses?

The answer lies in the design of the goat hoof.

Unlike horses, goats have hooves comprised of two split toes. The outer part of each toe, which is shaped like a parabola when seen from below and is labeled "Wall" in the diagram below, is hard; the part marked "Sole" on the diagram is soft and rubbery.

The parabolic shape of the hoof wall adds strength, while the cushy sole provides traction on sloped surfaces and can deform inwards to absorb irregularities in the terrain. And because the toes can operate independently, the goat can use just one to gain purchase on extremely narrow surfaces, or splay the toes to gain more contact area.

The image below is of goat poop. It admittedly contributes nothing to the discussion but I am including it for scatological purposes.

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cagampang

13 years ago

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@Sina- see actual climbing shoes- the 'parabolic' part, where the sole inverts from typical shoe is similar to this hoof...they've been designing them like this for about 20 plus years, since climbers started getting inverted on overhanging walls...
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Z Hulett

7 years ago

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It's also incredibly helpful that the goat's bone structure puts the weight of the goat almost directly in a straight line down towards the pointed toe. This means the goat can stand on its tippy toes without having to actually use muscles to do so. If we want to dig our toes into a rock face, we have to use tons of muscles in our feet, ankles, and legs, which becomes a huge challenge, especially when the holds on the wall are small.

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Jomy Muttathil

7 years ago

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Serious climbers grow their toenails and file them down in a parabolic shape.

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Elijah M . Venegas

13 years ago

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wow!! it's indeed a great fact to know . . . hw I wish there is a shoes invented like that it's a big help to avoid accidents. =)
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Andre

13 years ago

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All this effort for SALT? Get a life, goat.
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mikro

13 years ago

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lesson learned? without goats, dams fail.
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franx

13 years ago

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I don't know anything about climbing, I only know about falling but if these goats were humans they would be part of "spiderman".
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n1kko

13 years ago

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That goat poop is engineered to grapple rocks in the most extreme conditions. Another flawless product of mother nature.
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Jeremy

13 years ago

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Now I just want to see some video of them climbing the wall.
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Sina Vodjdani

13 years ago

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This is very interesting.

You think this could give some insight into the design of specific hiking or climbing shoes?

Thanks.
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