The Arapawa goat

THE Livestock Conservancy placed the Arapawa goat on its critical list because there are just 150 to 200 domesticated goats from this ancient breed in the US, making it one of the rarest goat breeds.

Arapawa goats are named for the New Zealand island where the breed was once plentiful. European explorers were rumoured to have arrived on the island with a small herd of “Old English” goats in the 1600s. The remaining population of Arapawa goats are said to be descendants of these original herds.

As more productive breeds were developed, Arapawas fell out of favour. Their populations were further diminished when the New Zealand Forest Service decided the goats were causing too much damage to the forests and began removing them. In 1897, island residents created a sanctuary to conserve the once-feral breed.

Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum in Massachusetts, imported a herd of Arapawas in the mid-1990s, which helped get the breed established in the U.S. There are an estimated 15 domestic breeders of the rare goats.

Arapawas are considered smallsized goats. They have long hair and are predominantly black, brown, and white in varying combinations with many having badger stripes on their faces. Ewes typically give birth to twins with little to no birthing difficulties and possess excellent mothering skills from the start.

The Arapawa is a non-aggressive breed, which, if handled early in life, makes an excellent family goat.

Living peacefully on the island for nearly two centuries, threatened only by the occasional hunter, in the 1970s the little goats on Arapawa Island came under the threat of eradication.

It was only through the dedication of Betty Rowe, a resident of Arapawa Island, that the Arapawa goat breed survived a cull by the New Zealand Government’s Forest Service.

With their priority being the protection of the native fauna and flora on Arapawa Island’s reserve, a regular cull of the goats by the Department of Conservation continues.