NEW YORK (WABC) — A group of famous goats are back for the summer in Manhattan’s Riverside Park, and this time they’re hungrier than ever for some tasty greenery.
On Saturday, the Riverside Park herd is facing off in New York City’s new competitive eating event, “The Great Goat Graze-Off.”
The event is the first-ever professional eating competition between goats, and will be overseen by George Shea of Major League Eating, best known for hosting the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest.
As part of the competition, the goats will chow down on plants on the lawn north of Ten Mile Playground at West 151st Street and the West Side Highway.
This year’s competition features five tenacious, invasive plant-eating goats, including Romeo, Mallomar, Butterball, Kash and Rufus. You can read more about each competitor on the Riverside Park Conservancy website.
The new event is part of a broader effort by park officials known as Goatham to help restore greenery and combat invasive species.
Over the past five summers, the goats have cleared the slopes at 120th Street, allowing for the installation of native understory and large trees which protect the mature tree canopy. Last summer, the goats were assigned to a new location at West 143rd Street where they ate poison ivy and other invasive plants.
Known for their giant appetites, goats have widely been used by farmers, and more recently by parks, to help control and suppress the growth of detrimental invasive plant species, according to the Riverside Park Conservancy,
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