Ruahine ungulate controls were the ‘GOAT’

Source: NZ Department of Conservation

Date:  27 August 2026

The 2025/26 Ruahine Forest Park goat control programme supports ecosystem restoration by reducing wild goat browsing impacts and preventing reinvasion from surrounding farmland. Ground hunting operations were delivered across two primary management blocks between October 2025 and June 2026.

Wild goats heavily browse native plant species, which reduces forest regeneration, weakens ecosystems, and reduces food and habitat for native wildlife.

Ruahine Forest Park covers approximately 93,000 hectares and is hugely important for local wildlife, including habitat for kiwi, whio, Powelliphanta snails, and many native forest bird species.

Dan Tuohy, Operations Advisor at DOC, says the operation focused on maintaining and expanding progress made in previous years, targeting not just goats already within Ruahine Forest Park, but also source populations on adjoining private land buffers.

“The ground hunting programme was highly successful, particularly where intensive buffer control has removed source populations on adjoining farmland,” says Dan.

“Wild animals like goats ignore property boundaries so we need to work together and be coordinated to get the best results.”

Continued control on neighbouring farmland has proven highly effective at suppressing source populations and reducing reinvasion into the park. Across the programme, a surprisingly low kill rate of 1.29 goats per hunter per day, compared to 5 per day last year, indicates goat densities have been substantially across Ruahine.

“The dramatic reduction in goat encounters and kill rates this year suggests the programme is suppressing populations effectively,” Dan says. “Now we just need to keep the momentum going.”

Continued investment and partnership with landowners will be critical to maintaining these gains and achieving long-term ecosystem restoration outcomes. Neighbouring landowners can get in touch with DOC to support control.

To maintain progress toward a zero-density goat population, the next steps are to:

• Continue current levels of funding and hunting effort.
• Ensure helicopter survey capability continues.
• Target known hotspot areas after winter.
• Expand control onto additional buffer properties where access can be secured.
• Strengthen collaboration with regional councils regarding goat management in surrounding landscapes.
• Continuing rapid responses to all goat sightings.

Landowners and hunters can play a role by getting involved in the National Wild Goat Hunting Competition, which runs until November 2026. Landowners can register to allow vetted NZDA hunters to hunt on their land and can win prizes for being part of the competition.

National Wild Goat Hunting Competition

Background information

More information on wild goats

DOC has long-running regional goat control programmes across the country, covering about one million hectares of conservation land. These aim to prevent the spread of wild goats into new areas, remove wild goats from areas with high biodiversity values, and keep numbers low enough in other areas to ensure forest health is not compromised.

Ground hunting operations were delivered across two primary management blocks between October 2025 and June 2026. Both contractors used ground-based hunting with finder-bailer dogs and worked closely with neighbouring landowners to secure access and target reinvasion sources.

Contact

Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/08/27/ruahine-ungulate-controls-were-the-goat/