Goat Gardeners Take the High Ground in Brooklyn Bridge Park

Pictured: a goat at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Photos courtesy of Brooklyn Bridge Park.

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — If you're trying to satiate the appetite of a goat, one park won't be enough.

Since May, a team of eight goats have been digesting unwanted invasive foliage at the Zucker Natural Exploration Area in Prospect Park, where they'll remain until the fall.

And now, four more of their cud-chewing colleagues have taken up residence on the berm next to Pier 3 in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

The new arrivals, named Horatio, Minnie, Hector and Eyebrows, are also tasked with removing unwanted weeds and plants from the space.

For the next two months, they'll be working during the day inside a fenced-off area on the berm, though they're a bit harder to see than the goats in Prospect Park. (Brooklyn Bridge Park spokesman Jack Warner said they'll be visible some of the time from the park's promenade.)

Goats on the berm near Pier 3.

Both goat teams come from the Green Goats farm in Rhinebeck, New York, and have been heralded as an environmentally friendly way to take care of terrain that's too steep to be easily weeded by humans. They'll be cared for by park staffers, and will rest overnight in their own shed.

Warner said the four goats are costing the park $14,000. That's $10.90 per hour, per goat, assuming a 40-hour work week (which may be too conservative).

According to Warner, if the work goes well, the goats could take on new areas of the park in the future. Clearly a goat takeover is near — but fear not. Green Goats owner Larry Cihanek told Patch in May that they're "actually fastidious" when it comes to their dietary habits, and enjoy weeds far more than your cherished tin can collection.