Much like Noah, provisioning the ark for a fresh start in a
world wiped clean, European explorers of the 18th and 19th
centuries included livestock on their journeys. The Arapawa
goat, a small, shaggy line valued for its milk, meat, and skins,
originated in this manner. The breed is descended from Old
English milk goats that Captain James Cook, while exploring the
South Pacific in 1773, left behind on Arapawa Island as a gift
from King George III For 200 years, the curly-horned ruminants
browsed Arapawa Island—a craggy, 29-square-mile outpost off the
coast of New Zealand—with minimal human intervention and free of
predators. Back in Europe, their forebear, the Old English milk
goat, was interbred with other goat breeds; in 1954, the pure
breed went extinct. But on Arapawa, natural selection worked in
the goats’ favor. The feral does bore twins, sometimes triplets,
and their population exploded. “They haven’t been purpose-bred,”
says Will Ober, vice president of Arapawa Goat Breeders USA.
“They’ve been wild fo