What does it look like?
Feral goats vary in size and colour, and have a 'blocky' appearance, with stout strong legs designed for climbing. Adult male goats stand 76-91cm at the shoulder, with a body length of 116-152 cm, and weigh 45 - 55kg. Adult males often have a significant beard. Females look similar to males but are considerably smaller, weighing 25-35kg. They are social and prefer to travel in small groups.
Why is it a problem?
Goats are generalist herbivores that digest plant material extremely efficiently, enabling them to feed on a wide variety of plant species. They often concentrate the majority of feeding on a small number of favoured species though, and will eat fresh leaf litter as well as live vegetation. They are able to stand on two legs or climb to reach higher vegetation.
Goats destroy forest understorey and, when combined with possum damage to the upper canopy, severe deterioration of native forest occurs. Pest plant invasion can occur under these circumstances. Goats also damage revegetation plantings on land retired for soil conservation purposes and newly planted or young trees in exotic forests. They are one of the most destructive animals found in forests and have the ability to live in a healthy state where other animals would die out.
Goats have a polygynous mating system (one male with a group of females) with high reproductive success. Females can become pregnant from 6 months old, but first year breeders contribute little to population growth. Feral goats are able to conceive year round but mating activity tends to peak December/January and June/July. One or two (occasionally three) offspring are produced per year. Gestation takes approximately 150 days. Juveniles stay with the mother for about 6 months.
Despite extensive control operations and recreational hunting, feral goats remain in much of the Hawke’s Bay region - in native bush, regenerating scrubland, exotic forestry and farmland.
The Wild Animal Control (WAC) Act defines any goat that is not held behind effective fences or otherwise constrained; and not identified in accordance with an animal identification device approved under the National Animal Identification and Tracing Act 2012 or in accordance with an identification system approved under section 50 of the Biosecurity Act 1993 and approved by the Director-General for the purposes of this Act, as a wild animal.
Control methods
- One of the best methods of control for private landowners/occupiers is shooting. Every person shooting must either hold a firearms licence or be under supervision of a person who holds a firearms licence and is over 20 years of age. You should inform your neighbours where and when you intend to shoot. This may be an opportunity to coordinate your efforts with neighbours.
- Regional Council approved goat control contractor details are available upon request from our Biosecurity Advisors.
- Regional Council only fund goat control within Priority Ecosystem sites, or inside Feral Goat Coordinated Management Areas.
More information
- We control goats in designated Feral Goat Coordinated Management Areas. These areas are developed on the principle of voluntary coordinated management.
- Two Feral Goat Coordinated Management Areas currently exist - one at Maungaharuru (Boundary Stream) and one at Mahia.
- Feral Goat Coordinated Management Areas can be created once written agreements have been entered into with 75 percent or more of the total land area marked for the Area. They could be created anywhere in Hawke’s Bay. Regional Council will coordinate feral goat control work within the area on initial creation and once goats are reduced to low levels, occupiers within the area are required to continue control. Once a Feral Goat Coordinated Management Area is created the occupiers within the Area are then subject to Plan Rule 12 in the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council Regional Pest Management Plan 2018-2038.
Related links
Management Programme
Site-led Pest Programme
That the subject, or an organism being spread by the subject, that is capable of causing damage to a place is excluded or eradicated from that place, or is contained, reduced, or controlled within the place to an extent that protects the values of that place.
Rules
Sections 52 and 53
Sections 52 and 53 of the Biosecurity Act 1993, which prevent the communication, release, spread, sale and propagation of pests, must be complied with.
Plan rule 12
An occupier within a Feral Goat Coordinated Management Area, shall maintain feral goat densities on their land to either zero density or to levels specified within a Written Management Agreement approved by Hawke’s Bay Regional Council.
No person shall release from containment any goat in any part of the Hawke’s Bay region.
Plan rule 13
Except where an occupier of land has entered into a Written Management Agreement approved by Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, an occupier adjacent to a Feral Goat Coordinated Management Area, area of ecological importance or native planting shall, on receipt of a written direction from an Authorised Person destroy all feral goats on the land that they occupy within 500 metres of the adjoining property boundary where the occupier of the adjoining property is managing feral goats across their property as part of a Feral Goat Coordinated Management Area or in protecting an area of ecological importance or native planting.
Site-led rule
Pests listed in site-led programmes cannot be released from containment in any part of the Hawke’s Bay region, as per Section 52 & 53 of the Biosecurity Act 1993.
Good Neighbour Rule (GNR)
Under the New Zealand Biosecurity Act (1993), occupiers of land are required to take measures to prevent certain pests from spreading to adjacent properties. There are a number of pests where regulatory control within a property is unwarranted because occupiers make adequate control decisions based on their individual requirements. However, the ease that a pest spreads means that controlling property boundaries may still be required. The Good Neighbour Rule also applies where pest control along a property boundary is deemed inadequate.
Taxonomies
FamilyBovidae
TypeAnimals
GroupMammal
HabitatLand
Management ProgrammeSite-led Pest Programme
RulesSections 52 and 53Plan rule 12Plan rule 13Site-led ruleGood Neighbour Rule (GNR)
