Arapawa goats are on trial —is their time running out?

Press, 31 May 1978, Page 15

Arapawa goats are on trial —is their time running out?

When, in 1777, Captain Cook landed goats on Arapawa Island in the Marlborough Sounds, he was not to know the dissension his actions would arouse 200 years later. In the intervening years much has happened on Arapawa. The bush that covered the island has all but disappeared, giving way to farmland and scrub. The southerly winds which howl through Cook Strait remain—as do the goats. They have thrived, along with several other feral mammals, on the island’s vegetation. Unfortunately, as in so many parts of New Zealand, man’s indiscriminate use of the fire stick to clear the bush for grazing has denuded the island of all but a few patches of forest. Some of this is privately owned, but by far the largest part of the remainder

is classified as scenic reserve within the Marlborough Maritime Park. The goats are eating well—and say the ecologists, if they continue to thrive unchecked the forest will surely die. Herein lay the seeds of dissension. They sprang to life in the fertile ground of a 1975 Government department report, and they became deep-rooted last year. They have blossomed into open warfare between those who want the animals controlled by shooting and those who do not. The fruits are acrimony, distrust, and confusion. The facts have been submerged in an undergrowth of emotionalism as dense as the ecologists would like to see the forest within the scenic reserve. BARRY SIMPSON reports . . .

Apart from the area surrounding farm houses, and about 80ha on the Okukari Bay farm of Mr C, T. (Charlie) Heberley, Arapawa Island has no flat land.

The north-eastern slopes drop steeply into Cook Strait from the main axial ridge which rises from 277 m above Cape Koamaru in the north to 560 m at Ngarawhia, above Perano Head, to the southeast. The western side slopes gently towards Queen Charlotte Sound, and is farmed and grazed. In all, Arapawa is more than 7272 ha (about 18,000 acres) in area. It is the sixth largest island of New Zealand (excluding outliers) and the largest in the Marlborough Sounds. It has been farmed for about 130 years and still has eight farms. There are also a number of holiday homes on it.

One farm, at Te Aroha Bay (in the larger Otanerau Bay) is occupied by Walter and Betty Rowe. They are Americans who emigrated from Philadelphia eight years ago. After two years at Manapouri, they moved to Arapawa.

Ironically, it was Mrs Rowe, the chief opponent of the proposed slaughter of the goats, who brought them to the notice of officialdom. In November, 1975, in answer to her 1973 inquiry about an unusual breed of wild sheep on the island, a group of five men from ecological, botanical, and veterinary divisions of government

departments visisted the island and reported upon various aspects of their findings. “The central section (of the reserve) is of considerable biological interest,” the report said. “Although ther are no plant species o major forest communities peculiar to the area, the extremely complex pattern of forest types and high diversity of plant species is especially interesting since this is the only significant forest remaining on either the northern or southern shores of the Cook Strait Narrows.

“Vegetation complexity is reflected in the abundance and diversity of the native birds, and the presence of the bush hawk and brown creeper is encouraging. A diverse land snail fauna includes several species with restricted distribution elsewhere, but the future of the larger snails is in jeopardy because of the depredations of pigs.” Elsewhere in the report mention is made of this forest’s very heavy canopy which augured well for its life, particularly since there were no opossums on the island. However, the report contained several alarming features. . .

The understorey of the bush was virtually nonexistent because of brows-? hig by goats, rooting by pigs, and unknown damage by the feral and domestic sheep and cattle, the report said.

“There is an almost complete absence of pala-

table species in the understorey which has generally been heavily browsed to the maximum reach of goats. The density of g-<ats is such that there is virtually no chance of canopy replacement by the usual forest species under existing conditions.” It recommended, as a first priority, noxious animal control. “This is urgent,” said the report. In March, 1976, Dr G. N. Park, of the D.S.I.R. botany division, Nelson, returned to Arapawa to establish control plots to gauge vegetation recovery. At the close of his report he said that the scenic reserves on the island provided “one of the few opportunities to realistically retain the pre-European patterns of indigenous coastal forest vegetation in the central New Zealand region, if based on the presence or absence of opossum.” He recommended that the indigenous vegetation should be retained and maintained as the primary objective of biological conservation on the island. “Ideally, this can only be achieved by the eventual elimination of feral goats and pigs from the entire island.” he added. This last recommendation was confirmed in another visit to the island by Dr Park, accompanied by Mr G. Y. Walls, also of the Nelson-based D.S.I.R. botany division, in July of the same year, during visits to various reserves within the maritime park. All this information, and

much more was sent to the park board which considered it and then called in the Forest Service to cull the pigs and goats. The feral sheep — the cause of the whole inquiry — were to be left strictly alone. The breed is under scientific study. The goats had a stay of execution last year when the board granted a 12 months’ moratorium to allow the Arapawa Wildlife Trust to research the goats. In the 12 months about 290 goats have been taken from the island, for research or commercial use.

So far, the biggest catch has been the 150 taken to the Canterbury area. Others have been taken by goat breeders to Nelson and Banks Peninsula. The intention of their new owners has been to incorporate them into existing commercial ventures. Another 100 will be taken by the Lands and Survey Department to a new farm park being established in the hills behind Porirua, north of Wellington. Here they will be used for research into the milk and meat potential, as well as for viewing by casual sightseers and toursits.

Once the department has taken its 100, and until the Forest Service begins its ‘‘control” programme, anyone interested in acquiring feral goats from Arapawa Island may apply to the park board.

Estimates of how many goats remain on the island range from as low as 400

(Mrs Rowe’s figure) to as high as 1500 (ecologists’ figures). It is thought that there are about 120 feral sheep. The numbers of both animals, however, is only guesswork. The 12-month moratorium has expired; the Forest Service is due to move into the island in the middle of next month. Two shooters would spend 10 days on the island and would “shoot every goat

they see,” according to the Nelson conservator of forests (Mr P. W. Maplesden). Helicopters would not be used in the “control” programme, according to the Lands and Survey Department; and dogs would not be used without the agreement of adjacent landowners. The Forest Service policy, in line with the recommendations of the

reports, Is “extermination.” “But,” says Mr Maplesden, “extermination is impossible. My very wild guess, going on what has happened elsewhere, is that we will get between 60 and 80 per cent of the goats. We certainly won’t get the lot.” From the time of the original recommendations to cull the goats Mrs Rowe has expressed her

opposition through Government channels and the news media. The goats, she says, are descendants of the goats landed by Captain Cook. They have been identified as the now extinct (in England) “Old English Milche boat.” If they were to be shot, the species would be endangered. She, and the Arapawa Island Wildlife Trust, which was formed as the result of publicity given to the shooting proposals, have suggested other “control” measures. The primary one is the establishment of a sanctuary on the island and the fencing of the main reserve. She has decried the shooting of goats at this time of the year when the nannies are dropping their kids. If the nannies were

shot, the kids would starve. She feels that scientific surveys should be undertaken (as recommended in the 1975 report) before “extermination” took place, otherwise the whole ecological balance of the island might br altered. These are the facts put forward by the anti-shoot-ing opposition — bald facts devoid, of the emotionalism that has characterised the intensive anti-shooting campaign in recent months. Mr Maplesden says there is nothing to stop the trust from establishing a sanctuary on the island, “but it won’t be on reserve land.” “If they wont to establish a wildlife sanctuary, they can buy land and do it. They are quite at liberty to do so — provided the sanctuary is fenced and the animals branded,” he adds. Mr Heberley, who has farmed the area for 40 years, has opposing views to Mr Rowe’s. He says that he knows of two Arapawa families who brought herds of goats to the island and that these would have bred into the goats already on the island. This information, he adds, has been given to Mrs Rowe, “but she persists in publicising the goats as a pure breed of Old English goats.” He agrees that the Arapawa goat is a breed, but he says that as a breed it is no different to other goats abounding in other

areas of the Marlborough Sounds and other parts of New Zealand. Mr Heberley regards the submission that shooting be delayed for another six months because the nannies were now dropping their kids as “so much rubbish.” "They drop kids all the year round,” he adds. Seven of the eight farmers on the island want the goats "controlled,” he says. "We don't want them exterminated, just controlled.” Thirty to 40 years ago, the regeneration in the forest was so thick it was impenetrable. “Today, you can drive a horse through it.” Recently, Mr Heberley says, the Tory ChannelArapawa Island Settlers’ Assocation held a meeting to consider various subjects, and the matter of the shooting arose. The 30 members present unanimously endorsed the park board’s decision. mrs Rowe was not present, although he says, an invitation had been sent to her.

Both Mr Heberley and his son-in-law, Mr N. D. Davis, of Hope, Nelson, who lived and worked on the island for 18 years, agree that it would be impossible to erect a fence on the eastern faces that would keep the goats away from the bush. “The cliffs are sheer in parts on the eastern side of the ridge. No matter where the fence ended, the goats would get round the bottom of it,” Mr Davis says.