goat

Feral goats (Capra aegagrus hircus) were eradicated from Auckland Island, a National Nature Reserve and World Heritage site, between 1989 and 1991. Goats had established on the main Auckland Island following several releases in the 19th century. The population, amongst the most southerly ever recorded, was restricted to the northernmost areas of the island, with environmental conditions appearing unfavourable for southward spread, and the population stable at c. 100 individuals during scientific studies in the 1970s and 1980s.

[First paragraph...]
The Hunua Range consists of approximately thirty square miles of dense mature rain forest and an equal area of scrub and second growth. It is situated nearly thirty miles south-east of Auckland City on the western edge of the Firth of Thames (Fig. 1.) The range comprises a group of deeply dissected, up-faulted blocks of Mesozoic greywacke. The upland region is sharply delimited from the rolling lowlands by four well-defined fault lines in the east, south and west. To the north the area dips gradually into the Tamaki Strait and the Papakura-Clevedon lowland.

The diet of the North Island kokako (Callaeas cinerea wilsoni) was studied in three central North Island habitats, Pureora, Mapara, and Rotoehu, for three years. Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) diet was less intensively studied for part of the same time in Pureora and Mapara. A literature review was made of the diet of possum, red deer (Cervus elaphus), and feral goat (Capra hircus). There is considerable overlap between the diets of kokako and the three mammalian browsers; leaves and/or fruit of some species are eaten by all four, e.g.