Wild Goats.
The introduction of goats dates from Captain Cook’s second voyage. He says in his journal, “On June 2, 1773, I sent on shore on the east side of the sound [Queen Charlotte Sound] two goats, male and female. The former was something more than a year old, but the latter was much older. She had two fine kids some time before we arrived in Dusky Bay, which were killed by cold.” Forster in his journal says they were left by Captain Furneaux in an unfrequented part of East Bay, “this place being fixed on in hopes that they would there remain unmolested by the Natives, who, indeed, were the only enemies they had to fear.”
On the third voyage the “Resolution” was in Queen Charlotte Sound from the 12th to the 25th February, 1777, and Captain Cook says, “I gave Matahouah two goats (a male and a female with kid) and to Tomatongeauooranuc two pigs (a boar and a sow). They made me a promise not to kill them, though I must own I put no great faith in this. The animals which Captain Furneaux sent on shore here, and which soon after fell into the hands of the Natives, I was now told were all dead.”
It is popularly believed that the wild goats of New Zealand are descended from those introduced by Captain Cook; but while this may be partly true of those in the South Island, especially at its northern end, it can hardly explain those found in the North Island. It is more likely that they are descended from escaped animals. Mr. F. G. Gibbs tells me that goats were imported into Nelson some time in the “forties.” “In the ‘fifties’ a large number were kept tethered on some hills in the Maitai Valley, still called the Goat Hills. Some of these goats escaped into the back country, and were the progenitors of the wild goats.”
Wild goats are very abundant in many parts of New Zealand. Great numbers of them are to be met with in the rocky and precipitous country west of Palliser Bay, near Wellington. Except when they move they are difficult to see, as their colours blend almost undistinguishably with that of their natural surroundings. They were abundant also on Kapiti Island, but have recently been greatly reduced in number by the caretaker, who has shot several thousands. They also occur, though not so commonly, on the sparsely scrub-clad faces of the west coast north and south of Hokianga, as well as on the outskirts of bush land. In the high country of Marlborough they are very abundant, and are mainly of three colours—black (which is, perhaps, the commonest), khaki, and white. In a trip through the cañon of the Ure River Mr. B. C. Aston says, “The fusillades of stones showered down on us by the goats which we had disturbed were a source of ever-present danger.” Mr. W. R. Bullen, of Kaikoura, informs me that they are numerous on his run, but, while they eat very much the same food as the sheep do, they keep the scrub and bush open, so that the sheep can move through it.
Writing of things in the Lake Wakatipu district, Mr. L. Hotop, of Queenstown, tells me that there is an immense number of wild goats spread all over the Lakes district—a moderate estimate gives them as many as thirty thousand. “They are principally at Moonlight, Skipper’s, Sandhills, and at the lower end of the lake, seriously interfering with the pasturage in these localities; one runholder has paid year after year for as many as one thousand during the season. At Moonlight a digger, during the past nine months [in 1916], has shot 550. My informant tells me he was offered 2s. 3d. a skin for as many as he could send.”
Mr. W. H. Gates, of Skipper’s, writing in 1916, said, “There are a lot of wild goats here, almost within rifle-range of my cabin. One sheep-farmer gave 1s. for each pair of ears, and 1s. for each pelt. The male is a rough-looking customer; some have horns 15 in. in length and 2½ in. by 1¾ in. at the root, and they grow in a slightly spiral form. I think there is a strain of many breeds running through them all. Some have long hair, but are not the Angora breed. Some are almost white, but the chief colours are black-and-white or black-and-tan. I have noticed here (and also on the west coast) that the female has her young in the winter, when food is not plentiful. Why this is so I never could understand.”
Goats are still found wild on the Galloway Station, Central Otago, though not so abundantly as in former years. They live in the high country, and do not come down to the settlements. Mr. A. Gunn, who managed this large run for many years, tells me that they are of great use to sheep-farmers, as they keep down the “lawyers” (Rubus australis), and thus save the sheep from being entangled. In shooting them, if the wind is coming from their direction, you can smell them before you see them; and a billygoat is always found standing on guard while they are feeding. While they are of many colours, black-and-white is the commonest, though brownish-red, grey, and even occasionally a white one is found. They live in the roughest places they can find.
Goats are also found in considerable numbers round the south-east corner of the South Island, but whether they have escaped from the settlements about Preservation Inlet or have worked overland from Southland it is not possible to say with certainty. Probably the former is the explanation of their occurrence from Puysegur Point inland.
The attempts made from time to time to acclimatize goats on the outlying Southern Islands are of interest. Captain Enderby landed some on Enderby Island in 1850, and Captain Norman landed them on both the Auckland and Enderby Islands in 1865, but none appear to have survived. Dr. Cockayne says, “Two or three were landed on Ewing Island in 1895, but none have been seen recently. On Ocean Island, a very small islet in the Auckland Group, goats are numerous at the present time, but I have no details as to how they got there.” Captain Bollons, of the “Hinemoa,” writing me in February, 1916, speaks also of the last-named island, and adds, “Goats have been sent down from time to time to the Auckland Islands since 1890, most of which have either died or been killed off for food by castaways. At the Snares they were liberated about 1889, but soon died off. At Campbell Island some were landed in 1883 and 1890, and several were alive when the main island was taken up for a sheep-run in 1896. At the Antipodes several were liberated between 1886 and 1900, but were either used for food by the castaways or died off.”