Solving the Yoruba Goat Mystery:

I refuse to surrender to the Yoruba gods!!
We will analyse this phenomenon today.
There is also a Quiz at the end: N10,000 recharge card to the first person to get right answer.

Welcome to my Ted talk.
Thread!!

About 2 weeks ago, @toluogunlesi and others here, posted a video of what they call "Yoruba Artificial Intelligence Voodoo". It seems many people were familiar with the phenomenon, by it was the first time I saw it. I was baffled and annoyed that I don't have any answers.

As if that was not bad enough, a couple of friends decided to tagged me, asking if I have explanation. I shamelessly looked away as if I didn't see their Tweets. But deep inside, it is paining me. What da hell is going on with the goats. Trick? Illness? Magic? Trained goat?

I had a few hypothesis, but they were all really bad, and can't stand scientific scrutiny. I scrolled and scrolled the comment section, hoping someone has answers. Alas, many have already surrendered to the Yoruba Magic. I was not having it.

I had some bad theories- Similar to what others have shared in the comment section. Example,
(1) The cloths covered the goats eyes and tricked the goats to sleep. Firstly, goats can walk in the dark, and it is highly debatable if the cloth in-fact covered the goats' eyes Bcoz...

Goats have the widest viewing angle of any animal. Their unique rectangle pupil allows them to see a panoramic 340 degrees. No animal is even close to this field of vision.

This panoramic vision means a goat can see what is happening behind it without turning. In fact, this evident from the video. Checkout what happened when one guy tried to catch the goat from behind.
The goat saw him and sharply escaped, leaving the boy disappointed.

So there is not way to prove that the cloth on the goat caused darkness in the first place.
A second theory is that something in inner ear, perhaps the labyrinth- which helps in maintaining balance, causes the goat to sleep. But this is equally weak. labyrinth doesnt cause sleep

Last week, I did a thorough research into this Yoruba Voodoo. I read at least 15 research papers on goats and their sleep. I really couldn't find anything useful. Then I searched weird random blogs. And found something called Tennessee Goats. This is where our journey begins...

Tennessee goats are a certain breed of domestic goats sometimes called "Fainting goats" or Myotonic goats.
These goats will faint whenever they are scared or excited.
Here are some Tennessee goats fainting..

The reason for their fainting has been well researched. It's called Myotonia congenita, and it is a hereditary disorder. Normally, when we are scared, our brain sends signals to our muscles and we experience chemical rush that triggers our muscles to act.

Unfortunately, in Fainting goats, instead of the muscle to receive chemical (chlorine) rush, their cell mutation inhibits them, and send an opposite chemical that causes the muscles to stiffen. And the goat freezes. In essence, it is not fainting because they are fully conscious.

This seems to provide partial answer to the Yoruba magic. I still had questions, is it only Yoruba goats? is it all goats? does it have to cover the head? I asked a friend in Kaduna who had access to goats, to try somethings for me.

1 week later, he said the neighbour's goat ran away. I knew he wasn't motivated enough. I decided to continue my research.
The Tennessee goats were brought to Tennessee, USA in 1880s by a man Tinsley. It was said he brought 4 of them from from Nova Scotia, which is in Canada.

The reason I tried to trace their origin is because since the disorder is hereditary, perhaps some African goats were brought to that region in the past who breed them.
In the website of The Canadian Goat Society, it says they have 6 breeds of goats in the country, among them is.

Among the breed is Anglo-Nubian breed, which was brought from Europe but is a crossbreed of African and Indian goats. I was happy to see that, but even more excited when they mentioned another breed called Angora, which is a breed of NIGERIAN Dwarf goat and Pygmy...

I began searching for Nigerian Dwarf goats in North America, and as it happens, there is a very high population in Texas. A place that also happens to have a higher population of "Fainting goats".... There might be something here, but might also just be a coincidence.

I kept searching/reading about Nigerian Dwarf goats in Texas. I found this goat aficionado, mentioning how she registered her Nigerian Dwarf "Fainters" with the Myotonic registry with American Goat Society. This says something. It shows Nigerian Dwarf Goats faint & are Myotonic.

It would seem to me that only the Dwarf goats actually faint. Can someone with access to the Yoruba voodoo try it on a big goat ? Any goat taller than 22" will do. I await your answers.

I am not fully sure, but it seems the Freezing of the goats it a type of Myotonia.

By the way, I learnt something cool while researching. Do you know that goats were the first animals to be domesticated my man ? Some 10,000 years ago. Which brings me to the Quiz I promised.

Research has shown that the disorder in CLCN1 gene mutations that causes stiffness in goats muscles, could exist in other animals. But is hardly or never found. Could you think of a possible reason for this ?

Hint: There is a clue in the previous tweet.

Thanks you for reading

Here is the video of the Tennessee fainting goat. Twitter refused to upload it to the thread.

PS: The answer to the quiz question is a personal hypothesis I have. If u provide a stronger argument, u still win.

Here's the winner of the quiz. https://twitter.com/lilliput0/status/1312333541376692226?s=19