Goats

The goat has acclimatised very readily to New Zealand conditions, because of the natural adaptive abilities of the animal. The domestic goat originated from the wild goats of the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, and can still very rapidly lose all traces of domestication and revert to the wild state.

There were three main reasons for the liberation of goats in New Zealand. Cook first released them to provide an emergency food supply in a country that was evidently very short of natural food. For the same reason other sea captains placed goats on outlying islands, to provide food for castaways. Similarly in later years herds of goats were carried around by prospectors and public works camps.

The second reason became apparent when a number of Angora goats were introduced by the Auckland, Canterbury and Otago Acclimatisation Societies in the 1860s. A trade in the hair was hoped for, and also some anticipated a trade in the skins. Later on, goats were liberated as a form of biological control, to keep down the spread of blackberry and other weeds. The idea was that the goats would clear scrubland sufficiently for the establishment of sheep grazing.

Goat populations built up rapidly from the first few feral goats. Recent evidence of this phenomenon has been reported by Mr Welch, of Mount Bruce, Masterton. In 1943, 80 to 100 goats were liberated on Maori land near Mauriceville, to control blackberry. They entered the State Forest Reserve nearby and soon established themselves. In 1946 an attempt was made to count the goats, and they were found in many herds of between 30 and 60 animals, despite wholesale shooting by the local residents.