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If you want to see the tree climbing goats, you’ll have to travel to the Souss-Massa-Draa region, in the southwestern part of Morocco. Most visitors pass through this area on their way to Essaouira or Agadir, which are beautiful destinations for any Morocco itinerary. These animals are being manipulated and exploited,” she says. “They're not moving freely. They don't have access to food, water, or even shade. Being forced to stay in trees for hours is not a normal behavior." ‘Flying goats’ To see these critters climbing the branches of the Argania tree, you’ll first trek to Morocco, generally via one of the larger cities that has an airport for easy access. Once you’re in-country, you’ll need to head to the Souss-Massa-Draa region south of Marrakech. There are popular tourist destinations in the area that you’ll enjoy visiting as well, including Agadir, Essaouira, and the fortified market city of Taroudant.
The Argan fruit is ripe in June, so the best times to see the goats climbing around in the trees will be late spring and early summer. You can see them higher in the trees at other times of the year, but the sightings aren’t as consistent. Using goats as aerial eye candy is good “for attracting tourists,” Fedriani says, “but it's not good for the trees at all.”The country’s natural food sources for animals can be meager, so the goats are pretty determined to get to this tasty dinner. If they’ve eaten all the low-hanging fruit of the season, they’ll hop up into the branches and get to eating whatever’s available. Nine separate herds, including Benaddi’s, can be seen adorning trees along the roughly hundred-mile road from ancient Marrakech to Essaouira, a bright, breezy city on the Atlantic coast that’s popular with tourists. The goats generally stand from late morning to mid-afternoon, when traffic is heaviest between the two cities. Goats in trees also can be seen farther south, near Agadir in the Souss-Massa region.
Goats simply can’t digest the fruit’s seed, no matter how much they enjoy eating it. Their munching on them, though, strips away the skin and fruit. They then swallow the seed or spit it out, meaning a clean, spit-out seed or one that’s passed through their digestive system and been “softened.”About half-a-mile along the road from Benaddi’s argan, Miloud Banaaddi—who also has had to give up farming and is training his eight new goats to perch in his almond tree—dismisses any notion that what he’s doing is cruel. “The goats are only in the trees for three to four hours at a time,” he says. “Imagine if I kept them inside the house”—they’d be imprisoned and would go hungry. “Where would the money come from to feed them? There is nothing else to do. There are no jobs. There are no other solutions. This is the only one.” ‘There needs to be a system’
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