Feral goats may look cute, but the Department of Conservation (DOC) says they are a terror on New Zealand's native forest.
They came with European settlers, initially for food and the fibre from their coats as well as weed control.
Some escaped or were released and thrived in the native bush. It’s not known just how many there are – but it’s estimated there are several hundred thousand.
They’re thought to occupy 14% of New Zealand – mostly on public conservation land.
But some efforts to control the pest are proving successful.
1News met hunter Jason Hart at Pirongia Forest Park in the Waikato region, and a target for DOC hunting efforts.
In the part 843 goats were killed in the 2021-2022 hunting operation, which involved 1427 hunter houses on public conservation land. Another 200 goats were killed on private land nearby.
This was just one site in Department of Conservation goat control programme.
“A good job at low density you might only get one or two in a week but if you are doing a knockdown operation, numbers could be fifty to a hundred in a day per shooter,” explained Hart.
“They browse specifically on a lot of the palatable species so they can breed very quickly and increase in numbers, so we need to be able to knock them down and keep them at a low level.”
The key to successful hunting operations were the specially bred dogs, said Hart.
“We use finder bailer dogs, so they go out hunting themselves and bail up the goats and then we use locator dogs which sneak in on a scent and take you to the goat.”
DOC’s Tinaka Mearns said the type of damage that goats can do to conservation land could be “devastating.
Feral goats in particular don't really care for boundaries as we do and that's why they cause a lot of destruction,” she said.
“The ultimate aim is to decrease the population that we've got here so that we can see more of our forest coming back.”
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