Amateur photographer spots goats up a tree in Queen’s Park

Len Slottery, of Shawlands, was dumbfounded to see a group of goats high in a tree among the branches munching away at the leaves.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” said Len. “So, since the camera never lies, I fired off a few shots just to prove what I’d seen. It’ll certainly make a talking point for our end of year show.”

The mystery of the ‘goats up a tree’ was solved by community leader and ‘slow food’ campaigner Reuben Chesters, owner of the eat-local-buy-local shop Locavore.

“The photographer wasn’t seeing things,” said Reuben. “We had to move our pygmy goats out of the pen at Queen’s Park to make way for a breed of goat that feeds from the leaves of nut trees.”

Reuben got the idea to harvest nut oil for a range of culinary and skincare products during a trip to Morocco last year.

He told The Extra: “There is a breed of goat that feeds off the Argan tree, which is found in only one area in Morocco, North Africa. They crack the berry and the inner Argan nut or kernel is discarded. A small co-operative of artisans gather the nuts and grind them by hand to extract the oil, which is used to produce Argan oil of cooking quality and other skincare, haircare and cosmetic products.”

Reuben is keeping tightlipped about any potential food or skincare range harvested from the Queen’s Park goats, saying: “I think it would take more than one tree and a few goats.”