Arapawa Bucks with Takatimu Mountain Range in the background.
Photograph Courtesty of : Rochelle Parkhill
Arapawa Goats DNA Journey
Arapawa Doe
#051 Summer Wine Blondie with 10-day old kids
Beckie (#319) & Bella (#318)
Photograph Courtesy of : Michael Trotter
The Origins
of New Zealand's
Arapawa Goats
The only documented evidence of goats being left on Arapawa Island in the 18th century comes from Captain Cook's second and third voyages to the South Pacific.
The first goats introduced to the island must therefore have originated from one of three places: England, or the ports Cook called at enroute to New Zealand — the Cape Verde Islands and Cape Town, South Africa.
Since the Arapawa goat's phenotype bears little resemblance to the goats recorded at Port Praya during Cook's visit, an origin in the Cape Verde Islands can be ruled out, leaving England and/or Cape Town as the most likely source.
This provides us with two options: the Arapawa goats derive from primitive old English or South African indigenous goats. The only way to ascertain their origins is through scientific investigation.
This began in 2007 when Dr D. Phillip Sponenberg, Professor of Pathology and Genetics at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Science, reported the results of a DNA analysis of Arapawa goats conducted at the University of Córdoba in Spain by Ámparo Martínez Martínez and Juan Vicente Delgado Bermejo.
Using 26 microsatellites, the study placed Arapawa goats within a broader analysis that included San Clemente Island and USA 'Spanish' goats, alongside breeds from Spain, Latin America, Cape Verde, and common commercial breeds such as Alpine, Boer, Anglo-Nubian, and Saanen.
The findings were significant. Low within-population variation confirmed the breed's isolated founding history, and genetically the Arapawa sat apart from all other breeds, making a European, Spanish, or Portuguese origin unlikely.
Dr Sponenberg concluded that they were "an isolated group distantly related to other breeds" and a "conservation priority in their own right."
Arapawa Doe
#622 Glenlothian Thistle / Lola
Arapawa Doe
#564 Oak Rise Willow
Arapawa Doe #402 Kaipara Coast Karo
A second analysis followed in 2008, with new samples from Arapawa and additional breeds — including English, Rawhiti, Golden Guernsey, Damascus, Galápagos, and San Clemente Island goats — again sent to Spain.
This confirmed the earlier findings: the Arapawa is a very tight genetic group, far removed from all other known breeds.
Together, the two studies clearly established the Arapawa as a distinct, relatively inbred, and genetically unique breed. But neither study determined the origins of the Arapawa goat.
50K SNP Chip
Genotyping
Advances in genetic testing technology opened new avenues for exploring livestock origins and heritage, offering fresh hope for breeds whose histories remained shrouded in mystery.
The Arapawa goat had long been surrounded by a compelling myth — that these animals were surviving remnants of a primitive Old English breed, believed to be extinct everywhere else in the world.
Alison & Alan Sutherland believed that if this could be substantiated, it might prove to be the defining argument for ensuring their long-term survival.
Alison approached Dr John McEwan, one of New Zealand's leading animal geneticists at AgResearch, Mosgiel, who outlined the significant leap forward that new technology represented. He explained that earlier methodology utilizing microsatellites could examine only 10–20 small variable DNA markers at a time, whereas the new 50K SNP chip technology could analyse over 50,000 genetic markers simultaneously. However, this advancement came at a cost.
While Dr McEwan could provide the TSU samplers and TSUs gratis, and would extract and store the DNA, the genotyping itself — carried out overseas — would need to be funded by the Sutherlands.
Alison & Alan decided to proceed, knowing that the results would finally provide a benchmark for defining what could truly be considered a ‘true’ Arapawa goat.
Arapawa Doe
#626 Koreto Hazel
Arapawa Doe
#115 Skinner's Miss Gerard
Arapawa Doe
#194 Killinchy Lottie
Arapawa Doe
#342 Rakahuri Fleur
Arapawa Buck #241 Ellerslie Stables Nikau
In 2017, tissue samples were taken from 40 Arapawa Island goats living in domestication. DNA was extracted by AgResearch and sent overseas to create DNA 50K SNPs.
The results were sent to the Netherlands (Professor Hans Lenstra, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University) and to the US (Professor Phil Sponenberg, Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine) for independent analysis.
The genetic evidence proved beyond any doubt that the Arapawa goats are a unique goat breed of 'New-World' origin with a genotype going back to South African origins.
The urban legend that they are a remnant of the Old English Goat could be put to rest; they have no genetic relationship to any European breed. However, they could not be linked to any known African breed.
In May 2018, 7 Arapawa bucks were included in a worldwide study focusing on the paternal origin of goat species.
Their DNA results placed them in the Y2A Haplogroup, predominantly found in central, eastern and southern Africa.
This concurred with the 2017 results - the Arapawa goats are of African origin.
Followed by centuries of genetic isolation, the goats introduced by James Cook during his second and final voyages to New Zealand adapted to the local ecological conditions and evolved into what is now the New Zealand Arapawa goat.
They are not a hybrid of any other modern breed and there is no genetic relationship to the Australian Rangeland goat, which negates the theory the Arapawa goats originated from Australia and were introduced by the early sealers and whalers.
Arapawa Buck
#088 Tutukinoa Budda
Arapawa Buck
#005 Tutukinoa Hughie
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Arapawa Goats :
#370 Quinlan Licorice Sultana ( rear )
#235 Animal Farm Maia ( middle )
& #131 Wild Acres Elsa ( front )
In July 2020, another 22 Arapawa goats (7 males, 15 females) from lineage not included in the earlier research projects, were DNA tested and their results compared with the 2017 group utilising Genotyping by Sequencing.
This enabled the NZAGA to provide a genetic breed standard for the Arapawa goats.
The journey to create a genetic benchmark that would definitively establish the Arapawa goat as a distinct breed from any other goat had been closely followed around the world. Emily Nyman, President of the Arapawa Goat Breeders Association saw an opportunity to determine the purity of the Arapawa goats in the USA and contacted Dr John McEwan from AgResearch.
He recommended a genetic test using a methodology called PCA (Principal Component Analysis) to show how related or different individual animals are from each other. This would require retesting the original NZ tissue samples and comparing them with the USA samples.
Though not without mishap, by combining data from the New Zealand and USA cohorts, in 2024 we finally had enough DNA to identify the definitive genetic baseline for an Arapawa goat.
This journey to establish the origins of the Arapawa goat through scientific and historical research represents a significant accomplishment in modern livestock conservation.
Establishing a new breed of livestock that developed naturally is a rare achievement in modern agriculture — one that occurs infrequently.
We have been privileged to participate in something meaningful: the scientific documentation and preservation of a genetically distinct population that evolved in isolation on a remote New Zealand island over hundreds of years.
The NZAGA wish to acknowledge and thank Drs Sponenberg, Lenstra and McEwan including Alison & Alan Sutherland for their dedication in finding the origins of the NZ Arapawa goats.
