Arapawa goat

In 1773 Captain James Cook released two goats on Arapawa Island's East Bay, and on a subsequent trip in 1777 he gave another pair to a Māori chief in nearby Ship Cove.

A few decades later in 1839 a visitor to the whaling settlement on Arapawa Island wrote in his diary that it "swarmed" with goats.

With their priority being the protection of the native fauna and flora on Arapawa Island's reserve, a regular cull of the goats by the Department of Conservation continues.

By the dedication of Betty Rowe the goats of Arapawa Island were preserved when the New Zealand Department of Conservation wished to cull them entirely.

[citation needed] Through direct action the goat still survives today but annually there is a cull.