In our first issue of Rural Living we looked at Arapawa Sheep – but there are also Arapawa Goats.

A relatively small, feral breed (smaller than modern milking breeds) Arapawa Goats come in a variety of colours and usually have distinctively patterned faces. The males have widely sweeping horns, the females shorter backward-pointing horns.

It is thought the Arapawa Goats are a surviving remnant of the Old English breed, possibly descended from a pair released by James Cook in 1773.  

Betty Rowe, who has staunchly defended the wildlife on the  island for more than thirty years says both goats and sheep could have come from other passing ships as no detailed records of stock were kept on those voyages. 

DNA analyses undertaken in Spain in 2007 indicated the Arapawa goats were a genetically important breed in their own right and only distantly related to a number of other breeds investigated at the time. Unfortunately, no DNA material of the Old English goat was available for comparison.

The Arapawa Goats gained some notoriety in the 1970’s when DoC announced plans to cull the herd on the island. The threat of  eradication came when it was thought they were seriously damaging the island’s native forest. As no acceptable proof could be produced of their antiquity or rarity – or of any immediate commercial potential – a programme of severe culling was instigated.

Fortunately, the dedicated efforts of Betty Rowe and her supporters, resulted in a small but viable population of Arapawa goats being saved.    

As well as being maintained in a reserve on the Island itself, a number of these goats have been removed over recent years and are now being bred by a few enthusiasts in various places throughout New Zealand. In 1993 a breeding group was exported to USA and another to Great Britain in 2004. Sadly the Arapawa Goats are again in the spotlight with DoC renewing plans to cull the goats.