Wild goats endanger Auckland Is. flora

Press, 11 September 1985, Page 23

Wild goats endanger Auckland Is. flora

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

Concern is growing about the destruction being caused by wild goats on the subAntarctic island reserve group, the Auckland Islands. The Forest Service has just spent a great deal of money in eradicating goats on the sub-tropical Kermadec Islands; now it is faced with an important campaign nearly 3000 km further south. A party of scientists and surveyors that visited the Aucklands earlier this year were alarmed at the way the goats seemed to be increasing their range. Word of the alarm is now spreading through Government agencies with the publication of their report. Helicopter sightings showed goats in places where they had not been found before. Along with pigs, also present throughout the Aucklands, wild goats pose a serious threat to the natural vegetation.

Goats were introduced to the Aucklands in the midnineteenth century to provide food for settlers and shipwrecked seamen. The goats survived only along the northern coastal strip of the main island, and ever since have been eating out the native snow tussock faster than it could grow. Having reduced food supplies, they are now moving inland and to the more sheltered eastern side of the island. In February, this year, the Lands and Survey Department was asked to take interim stops to prevent any further southward spread of the goats. This request came too late for the department to do anything last summer. This winter, the department has held talks with the Forest Service — the department responsible for wild animal control — on a wild animal control plan for the Aucklands. This follows an approach from the

Nature Conservation Council asking that immediate action be taken to confine the goats to their earlier coastal range north and west of Laurie Harbour. Once this has been done, and if it can be done, the question of controlling or eradicating remaining wild goats, and also pigs, will have to be addressed. One factor in all this is that the goats have been isolated for more than a century. They may be extremely valuable for the mohair and cashmere industries. After so long in isolation, they may have some desirable and even unique qualities of fibre type, hardiness, resistance to footrot or disease, and breeding potential. While the Nature Conservation Council would like to see goats removed from the Auckland Islands as soon as possible, the creation of a mainland flock to conserve the genetic pool might be desirable.