Goat + Sheep = "Geep"

In a time when scientists are employing strenuous effort to find new discoveries in genetic engineering and cloning, an Irish farmer has made science go naturally. He has engineered a new species: "Geep"!

"Goat + Sheep= Geep" was the Irish farmer Paddy Murphy's formula to supervise the miracle.

Paddy Murphy claims to have bred goat-sheep hybrid, or 'geep', which has turned out to be an unusual-looking animal born after he noticed goat mating with his sheep on farm in County Kildare, Ireland, reports the Guardian.

Murphy said he had noticed a goat mating with his sheep on the mountainside but assumed nothing would come of it.

He, however, realised that it was bit different when delivered the animal.

At first he thought the new born offspring was normal at night when he delivered it but it was only the next morning that he noticed the difference.

"I only have white-faced Cheviot sheep, and when this one came out it was black," he said.

Eventually he found that the newborn animal was more like goat than sheep and more excitingly it "has horns like a goat".

Similar crossings – sometimes referred to as a geep or a shoat – are believed to be extremely unusual have been reported before in Chile, Jamaica, Malta and Botswana, where scientists found that a hybrid – known as the Toast of Botswana – had 57 chromosomes, a number in between that of sheep and goats.

These type of animal, however, are usually still born but Murphy's "geep" is different as it was reported o be healthy, frolicsome and "too agile for a lamb".

Murphy, who also runs a village pub in Ballymore Eustace, County Kildare, has been overwhelmed by the interest after a YouTube video of his new arrival went viral with more than 16,000 hits.

The owner of the rare species of animal said he was hoping to raise money for a sick child in the village with a competition for the best name for his young geep.

He also welcomed scientists if they want to check his new animal out.