Fact Check: Goats Have Rectangular Pupils?

Claim:

Goats have rectangular pupils.

Rating:

True ( About this rating? )

On Sept. 10, 2024, a claim spread on social media about the shape of goats' pupils. One Facebook user posted a meme that asked: "Have you ever noticed that goats have rectangular pupils?"

The caption read: "Goats are [grazing] herbivores and need to be able to protect themselves when a predator comes along. A broad line of sight, aided by wide, rectangular-shaped pupils, allows them to see danger approaching from their peripheral vision."

(Facebook user My Love)

A similar post appeared on Instagram in August 2024, while other iterations have circled on Pinterest , X , Reddit , and TikTok for years.

In short, because goats do have rectangular, horizontally oriented pupils, we have rated this claim as "True."

Encyclopedia Britannica explained how the horizontally elongated pupils allow goats to have a much wider field of view: "Grazing animals like goats and sheep have rectangular pupils that greatly increase their peripheral vision and enhance forward vision. As the animals raise and lower their heads to eat, their eyes automatically rotate so that their pupils remain parallel to the ground."

Another Britannica article , titled: "Discover why the eyes of some animals, such as sheep and goats, have horizontally elongated pupils," said the eyes of sheep, goats, horses, and other grazing animals contain horizontal pupils to help protect them from predators.

Similarly, a BBC Science Focus article referenced a 2015 study from the University of California, Berkeley , which found that the evolution of vertical versus horizontal slit pupils is closely linked to whether an animal is a predator or prey:

A 2015 study at the University of California, Berkeley, concluded that the evolutionary choice between vertical and horizontal slit pupils comes down to whether you are predator or prey. Predatory animals with vertical slit pupils, like cats and many snakes, can maintain sharp focus across the horizontal field of view and more accurately judge distance to their prey.

Horizontal slit pupils, on the other hand, sacrifice image sharpness at the left and right edges in return for wider peripheral vision. This gives prey animals such as horses and sheep a better chance of spotting predators.

Below, you can see a close-up image of a goat's eye provided by Getty Images :

(Getty Images)

The photo's description read:

Combination of two photographs shows the close-up of an eye of the goat on April 03, 2018 in Izmir, Turkey. The horizontal pupils enhance the image quality of objects and enable a panoramic vision. Each of the millions of different animal species on the earth have different eyes with different functions according to the conditions. Each of these eyes is unique and perfect on its own.

Other goat-related stories Snopes investigated in the past include a claim that a photo genuinely showed two goats climbing what appeared to be a sheer-faced wall. Additionally, in June 2021, we debunked a false rumor that U.S. President Joe Biden once said: "Goats are like mushrooms. Because if you shoot a duck, I'm afraid of toasters."

Sources:

"Combination of Two Photographs Shows the Close-up of an Eye of The..." Getty Images, 3 Apr. 2018, https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/combination-of-two-photographs-shows-the-close-up-of-an-eye-news-photo/941286760 .

"---." Getty Images, 3 Apr. 2018, https://www.gettyimages.it/detail/fotografie-di-cronaca/combination-of-two-photographs-shows-the-close-fotografie-di-cronaca/941286760 .

Dapcevich, Madison. "Pic Really Shows 2 Goats Scaling Brick Wall?" Snopes, 12 May 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/pic-goats-gravity/ .

Evon, Dan. "Did Biden Say 'Goats Are Like Mushrooms?'" Snopes, 28 June 2021, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/biden-goats-mushrooms/ .

One Good Fact about Rectangular Pupils | Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/one-good-fact/what-animals-have-rectangular-pupils . Accessed 12 Sept. 2024.

Why Do Animal Pupils Come in Different Shapes? https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/why-do-animal-pupils-come-in-different-shapes . Accessed 12 Sept. 2024.

Why Sheep, Goats, and Other Grazing Animals Have Horizontally Elongated Pupils | Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/video/188829/eyes-animals-deer-horses-pupils-sheep . Accessed 12 Sept. 2024.

Yang, Sarah. "Pupil Shape Linked to Animals' Place in Ecological Web." Berkeley News, 7 Aug. 2015, https://news.berkeley.edu/2015/08/07/pupil-shape-and-ecological-niche/ .