Arapawa Goats

A Rare Breed of New Zealand Origin

Arapawa buck and young doe on the shore of Arapawa Island

Without doubt the most interesting group of goats living in the wild in New Zealand is that found isolated on Arapawa Island in the Marlborough Sounds. They are a relatively small breed (smaller than modern milking breeds) and come in a variety of colours – patterns of white, fawn, brown and black being common – and they usually have distinctively patterned faces. The males have widely sweeping horns, the females shorter backward-pointing horns.

The goats on Arapawa Island, rarely numbering more than a few hundred, have been subjected to intermittent hunting and culling. In the 1970s they came under the threat of eradication when it was thought that they were seriously damaging the island’s native forest. Betty Rowe, an Arapawa Island resident, along with her family and volunteer helpers, successfully hindered the efforts of the cull teams and saved a small but viable population of the goats. Betty’s efforts on behalf of the goats, which included exporting some to the USA (see Arapawa Goats in the USA) and the UK (see Arapawa Goats Arrive in the UK) in 1993 and 2004 respectively, continued for thirty-five years until her death in 2008.

Betty Rowe and friend with a doe and her kid on Arapawa Island in 1978.

Over recent years, to ensure the survival of the Arapawa goats, a few dedicated enthusiasts have been breeding the goats in domestication throughout New Zealand, and also in the USA and UK. With their natural habitat on Arapawa Island under threat, and only a few hundred goats in captivity worldwide, they are an endangered breed.

DNA analysis undertaken in 2018, during a collaborative study by three leading animal geneticists, showed that the Arapawa goats are a unique, modern-world breed. The scientific and historical evidence indicates their ancestors were most probably those introduced by Captain James Cook on his voyages to New Zealand in 1774 and 1777. During isolation on Arapawa Island they adapted into what is now the New Zealand Arapawa goat.

A detailed account of the historical evidence compiled by Alison Sutherland (coordinator of the New Zealand Arapawa Goat Association) can be found on the New Zealand Arapawa Goats website.
 

Arapawa does with their kids on a property
at Tuahiwi in the South Island of New Zealand.

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   See also:
 Arapawa or Arapaoa?
 Artificial Insemination Trial