A NANNY goat called Daisy has given birth to what are believed to be the world’s only living twin ‘geeps’ – goat/sheep hybrids - after a week long dalliance with a Cheviot ram.

Angela Bermingham intends keeping the pair, which she has named ‘This’ and ‘That’ as pets rather than dispatching them to a butcher or a meat plant.

4 The pair have been named This and That by their owner Angela Bermingham Credit: Keith Heneghan

According to livestock experts, her geeps may be the world’s only surviving twin sheep/goat hybrids.

Michael Holmes, whose son Padraic owns the Cheviot ram believed to have impregnated ‘Daisy’ on the family farm outside Claremorris, Mayo has done extensive research on geeps since the pair came prancing into the world some weeks ago.

He said: “To have one geep survive is rare, but to have two fit and healthy twins running around must be regarded as something of a miracle.”

Ms Bermingham, who doesn’t own a billygoat, says there are no roaming billies around who could have mated with her Daisy.

4 Angela intends to keep her pet 'geeps' instead of sending them to the butcher Credit: Keith Heneghan

She says she knew there was "something going on" when Daisy - “a bit of gallivanter” - jumped a fence outside her cottage onto Holmes’ land where a flock of ewes being serviced by a Cheviot ram were grazing.

Angela, from Bury in England, said: “I knew something was going on because she didn’t come out of the field for a week.

“When she became obviously pregnant I knew immediately what had happened.

“They’re not goats and they’re not lambs either.

“They were born with no horns and a full set of sharp teeth. That’s not usual.”

She then pulled back one of the little geep’s lips to reveal a formidable sawtooth arrangement of sharp incisors.

4 Their mother Daisy had a week long fling with a neighbouring ram Credit: Keith Heneghan

Michael Holmes, a member of Mayo County Council, expressed certainty that the curious looking little animals are the product of a relationship between ‘Daisy’ the goat and his son’s ram.

A long-time livestock farmer he is a former chairman of the IFA’s National Sheep Committee.

He said: “Angela’s goat used to jump into the field where my son has the sheep and ram.

“These little geeps are very unusual. I have never seen twins before and I have seen a lot of sheep all over Ireland and all over the world.”

Although experts say it’s rare for a sheep and goat to mate successfully, and most resulting pregnancies are never carried to term, Angela says she’s convinced her ‘geeps’ are genuine hybrids and that any genetic tests in future would prove this.

This is not the first time cross-species love has produced a geep in Ireland.

4 Experts say they could be the only surviving twin sheep/goat hybrid in the world Credit: Keith Heneghan

In 2014, a dark-fleeced geep was born on Paddy Murphy’s farm outside Ballymore Eustace in Kildare.

He said he had previously witnessed a goat mating with ewes on his farm during “tupping” season five months earlier, but had given the matter little thought until the offspring appeared.

Farmer Murphy said at the time: “He was born about midnight and I noticed it was black for a start, but it was very fast to move. It was too fast for a lamb.

“It also has much longer legs than a lamb, it was then I realised it must be a geep. It’s a great attraction at the moment and there’s a great buzz about the place.”

At the time, the Irish Farmers Journal said it was the first time it had reported the birth of a healthy geep in Ireland.

The Ulster Farmers Union also said the live birth of a so-called geep is a very rare event and they are not aware of any currently in existence in Northern Ireland.

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They said this form of cross-breeding, on the rare occasion it does occur, is likely to involve a buck goat and a ewe. However, the geep usually dies during the ewe’s pregnancy or is stillborn.

Sheep have 60 chromosomes and goats have only 54 while the geep has a chromosome count somewhere between the two which is what make sit so rare.

In 2000, a geep was born in Botswana with 57 chromosomes while in 1990 a goat sheep hybrid was born in New Zealand that also had 57 chromosomes.