How To Separate the Sheep from the Goats

By Molly Mitchell

October 3, 2019

Last Updated: August 12, 2015

How To Separate the Sheep from the Goats
A baby goat with upturned tail
Goat giveaway

It’s trickier than you think to tell a sheep from a goat. You can take our quiz to see for yourself. Here’s a quick guide so that you can study up:

1) Don’t be fooled by horns. Both goats and sheep are known to sport them.

2) The coat can be a good hint: in general, sheep grow fluffy wool while goats grow hair. It’s not fool-proof, though. There are breeds of sheep called “hair sheep” that grow hair very similar to goats. And some goat coats are pretty darn fluffy.

3) In the end, it’s all about that bass. Sheep tails are long and droopy. If the tail you’re checking out is short and perky, you’ve got yourself a goat.

Now that you’ve got the knowledge, it’s time to prove yourself in quiz form. Don’t worry if they fool you–in the end, the best way to learn how to tell a goat from a sheep is to get yourself out to a farm and practice, practice, practice.