Goat-Sheep Mating Results in Rare 'Geep'

It's not often that you get a half-goat, half-sheep—at least not one that survives, experts tell the BBC. But a little "geep" is alive and well in Ireland, the Irish Farmers Journal reports. The creature was born roughly two weeks ago after a goat got in amongst the sheep on Paddy Murphy's farm. Murphy saw the goat mating with sheep, but he didn't think much about it before the geep was born. "I've never seen anything like him before," he tells the Journal. Indeed, the magazine says it's never reported on such a birth.

"He looks like a goat, trapped in a lamb’s body," Murphy says. "He even has horns like a goat and he is very quick on his feet … He's so fast you'd have to get him into the pen to catch him." Typically, goat-sheep hybrids die during pregnancy, the BBC notes. This guy, however, is "perfectly healthy and thriving away. He has been a great source of craic for the lads in the pub. We might even have a competition to name him," Murphy says. (On US shores, a herd of hybrid bison is proving to be a menace in the Grand Canyon.)