GoatMan: An out-of-the-box adventure

It has always been a human dream to inherit various characteristics of other animals or birds such as ability to fly, to dive and explore the depth of sea and oceans and many more.

Credits: businessinsider

But, this is a story of a person named Thomas Thwaites a.k.a GoatMan, who took this dream way too seriously and left all the worldly pleasures and the comforts of being a human, to live as a goat, wandering in the alps, on four legs!

Thomas, a 34 year old Londoner, worked as a freelancer with various firms. Since, the employment was irregular, the stress to earn livelihood was enormous.

One fine day, walking with his friend’s dog, Thomas noticed how happy and joyous the dog seemed about life. It was the first time that this bizarre idea struck his head.

Thwaites said to Dailymail: "When I first had the idea, a lot of people called me crazy, but I was fed up with my life anyway and needed a break. I was jobless and I had a lot of personal problems, and I found everyday life so stressful."

But, Thwaites was not very much fond of meat, so he decided against becoming a dog.

Thwaites said that he pondered upon the idea of becoming an elephant, but realised they seem to have the same problems humans do - they get sad, they get upset and they can even suffer from post-traumatic stress.

Eventually he settled on the idea of becoming a goat, a project that took nine months and £1,200 to complete.

He applied for a university grant to study goat psychology and tracked down a goatherd in the village of Wolfenschiessen in Switzerland.

Thwaites' prosthetic 'goat legs' were designed with the help of a doctor at the University of Salford Prosthetic Clinic, Manchester which helps people who have suffered amputations.

The real challenge was to survive in the wild eating grass, just like the goats. For this, a fake goat's stomach, created by experts from the University of Aberystwyth was tied onto his waist which contained artificial rumen. The plan was to chew grass and spit it into the bag for digestion, and later suck it from a pipe.

Photograph: Thomas Thwaites

But, at the end of the day, he used pressure cooker to break down the grass, as the researchers advise him that the former idea can give him serious gut infection.

Thwaites said: "You'd have to eat a lot of grass to keep your energy up and that's what makes goats so amazing. I had to eat the Mars bar to keep me in the game."

The culmination of the project came in the summer of 2015 when Thomas travelled to Switzerland to join a herd of goats.

Photograph: Tim Bowditch

Thwaites said, “It was incredibly painful to be in the suit. It was fine going uphill but when I had to stick with the herd coming down it was a nightmare. All the points where the suit rubbed got blisters and bruises."

He also made a goat friend who followed him all over the place.

Returning to his normal life after six whole days of trying to escape it, Thwaites said “'I learned something important, and that is that even goats have a hard life and need to fight for their existence. Every day was tough, and that is something that just is part of being alive. The one other thing I reckon I found is that goats are better people. They live much more in the moment than we do, and show us that we really do need to learn to be a bit more relaxed about life.”

Let's see what does Thwaites has to say about his experience in the Alps

Blogmantra talks to Mr. Thwaites

For detailed story of Thomas Thwaites' out of the box adventure, please refer to ‘GoatMan- How I Took a Holiday from Being Human’ by Thomas Thwaites

Photograph: Thomas Thwaites