The British primitive goat is a landrace of domestic goat native to Great Britain and Ireland, and is the original goat of the region.[1] It is considered a rare breed,[1] existing as several, isolated feral herds,[2] as some captive populations in zoological parks and nature reserves,[1][3] and breeding stock on some private farms operated by groups of rare-breed enthusiasts.[4][5] As few as 1,200 individual British primitives may remain.[1] The variety is also referred to as the British native goat, the old British goat, the old English goat or the British landrace goat, among more specific names (English, Irish, Scottish or Scotch, and Welsh primitive or landrace goat, etc.)[4][5] It descends from the earliest goats brought to the region in the Neolithic era,[2][4] around 3,000 BCE.[2] It is classified in the Northern breed group of goats.[citation needed] A population in Northumberland is sometimes referred to as the Cheviot goat.[2] The British primitive is among the foundation stock of some modern standardised breeds, including the Anglo-Nubian goat.[6] The breed is comparatively small, with commensurately low milk production. It is hardy and wiry haired, adapted to rough terrain and weather, and able to subsist and breed on its own without human intervention.[1][2][4][5]
The British primitive goat encompasses what were previously considered four interbreeding landrace varieties:[4][5]
English primitive, English landrace, or old English goat
Irish primitive, Irish landrace, or old Irish goat
Scottish primitive, Scottish landrace, old Scottish, or old Scotch goat
Welsh primitive, Welsh landrace, or old Welsh goat
Their characteristics were similar enough to classify them together, though some sources have treated them separately, such as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, which considers some of these strains extinct.[6]
The British primitive goat descends from goats introduced around 5,000 years ago, along with some sheep and cattle, to the British Isles by the first farmers in the Neolithic period,[2][4][5] the era of Stonehenge. A small, all-weather animal, it provided these subsistence pastoralists some milk, and was invaluable for its meat, skin, hair and tallow.[4] The ancestral goats were common to the Celtic and Germanic peoples of Northern Europe.[4][5] It survived through the Bronze and Iron Ages, as it was hardy and self-sufficient in foraging in a rough, nutritionally poor environment, required little intervention from humans, and was good at evading predators.[4] The British population of this livestock crossed cultural lines again later, during successive settlement by the Anglo-Saxons and by the Vikings.[4][5] During the Medieval period it was the herding goat of the manor, and the basis of the Cheddar cheese industry.[4][5]
Until the late 18th century, there were at least one million British primitives in Scotland and Northern England, and half a million in Ireland.[1] It was the only variety of goat established in the British Isles up until that era.[5] The native goat became less and less popular as agricultural practices shifted, because of their small size, coarse hair, and large horns.[1] By the time of the 1870s resurgence in goat-keeping, foreign hornless breeds from India, the Middle East, and Switzerland began to dominate, with shorter, smoother coats, and greater milk production, forming the basis of the modern, standardised breeds of the British Isles.[1]
In the United Kingdom
A wild Welsh Goat sketched c.1780
The primitive variety would have become extinct in the UK had some not escaped or been turned loose to form feral populations.[1] Due to both displacement by non-indigenous goats and conversion of hilltop grazing land into softwood plantations, these feral herds have long been in decline. By the 1950s, 60 of the 233 known locations of herd no longer supported feral goats. Many were killed off, as plantations of softwood were developed on upland areas that had been hill farms. By the 1990s, the number of herds had diminished even more, as only 45 then survived, with a total population of around 4,000 goats.[1][2] These numbers have been reduced further by more recent large-scale culls of as many as 1,200 goats at a time.[1] Some farm groups and zoos have created projects to help preserve a viable population of the British primitive.
The independent British Feral Goat Research Group estimates that because of introgression (repeated cross-breeding) with modern breeds of foreign stock, perhaps only 1,500 non-mixed British primitive goats remain in Great Britain, making it a rare breed.[1] The group has called for "urgent action ... to protect, preserve and promote what is rapidly becoming a remnant"[1] of what was once the dominant variety of goat in the region. The group says it has been successful in convincing both the Windsor Great Park and Battersea Park Zoo to maintain populations of the British primitive.[1] Another population, in multiple herds, is kept at Galloway Forest Park.[3]
The population of the Cheviot Hills in Northumberland is referred to as the Cheviot goat, and is believed to have been feral since at least the Iron Age, possibly even the Neolithic.[2] It has come into some conflict with both wildlife conservationists and local farmers, and as of 2011[update] became the subject of a GPS radio-collar tracking programme, to identify the exact extent of its moorland range and foraging behavior, for future management efforts. The goats have no legal protection, and may be disposed of by landowners. "This poses a real threat to this small, genetically unique population", according to Richard Bevan, co-director of the project.[2]
In Ireland
The Old Irish goat is the original and only landrace breed of goat in Ireland.[8] Having arrived in the Mesolithic period, the breed adapted to landscape as a cold-weather goat and became an integral part of Ireland's living heritage. Being a low maintenance, small holder's goat, it supported entire village communities throughout Ireland's impoverished pastoral history and as such, is celebrated in Irish tradition, paintings, photography and literature[9] The Old Irish Goat is critically endangered [10][11] as a consequence of changes in agricultural practises, cross breeding with modern improved goats, casual hunting and indiscriminate culls.
The Old Irish landrace goat is present in the Burren mountains, although fewer than 10% of the remaining feral herd (an estimated 250) is believed to be purebred, due to crossbreeding with Anglo-Nubian and Swiss imports.[12][13][14] Recent DNA profiling has verified that this population is genetically distinct from other strains of goat.[15][16] The population, however, has not to date received official designation or protection.[15][14]
During the Great Famine, many were let loose and became feral because people could not feed them. After the famine years, many of the goats were captured and herded into mountains by the landlords.[citation needed]
There is an annual fair in Killorglin, Kerry, Ireland, called the Puck Fair. It is an event lasting two days, in which (among other festivities) people capture a feral goat and put it on a stand in the town square, calling the animal as "King Puck", the honorary master of ceremonies. In pagan Ireland, the goat was sacrificed, though today it is let loose, at the end of the fair.[17]
The typical British primitive is described[by whom?] as deep bodied, with a square frame and broad shoulders and back. Its legs are shorter than its body depth, and have been observed to be bony, short, and straight. The goat normally has a long body and a neck that is frequently thick and short, a rounded belly and loins that are broad and deep. The breast bone is always projected forward.
A British primitive's head tapers towards a fine muzzle, and contains a prominent frontal bone with a broad forehead. A concave face appears to be due to a dip or stop at the point where the forehead meets the face. The goat's ears are usually round, small, and upright. A buck's ears are smaller than those of a doe. Due to horn growth, the ears may be directed forwards. The beard of the British primitive is a key feature of the breed in both sexes and is always present.
These goats have observed to be relatively small, with bucks possessing an average height 24 to 27 inches (61 to 69cm) at the withers, while does are 22 to 24 inches (56 to 61cm). Bucks and does frequently weigh around 100–120 pounds (45–54kg). Regional differences in size may occur.
British primitive goats are a long-haired variety. The buck's hair is normally uniform, whereas the doe's hair may vary between thick and dense. The goat's hair is never smooth or glossy. The buck's coat is long to very long, blending with the beard and creating a fringe. A doe's hair varies and can go from thick and dense to very thick, with occasional longer fringes of hair down the spine and around the flanks. During winter, the hair of the goat is much thicker and denser, due to the compact under-wool of cashmere. The cashmere often pushes the outer coat upwards and out, giving the goat a bulky look.
The horns of a British primitive normally form a "scimitar" or "dorcas" twist. The horns emerge high and parallel with the line of the forehead. The horns are thick at the base, and are often wide apart. A doe's horns range from scimitar to twisted, but are normally smaller and thinner. Individual of the breed are sometimes naturally polled (hornless), but it is not a very common characteristic.
Common colour patterns in British primitives include white, tan, wild patterning, badger-face, grey, light-belly, black, red cheek, mahogany, and face mask. Reverse stripes, belts, and spotting (pied) are also present in these goats.[18]
British primitive goats rut between August and December. The gestation period is 150 days. Up to one third of the kids die within the first few days from predation by foxes, large birds like crows, and birds of prey.[3]
Cross-breeding
Aside from feral populations cross-breeding on their own with imported goat breeds (see above), British primitives have been used in selective, intentional crossbreeding of livestock by humans.
The old English strain in particular is among the foundation stock of some modern standardised breeds. For example, the popular Anglo-Nubian goat originated in England in the 1920s–1930s, as a cross between old English milch goats.[6]
On farms it is very common to use artifice, such as artificial insemination, to obtain a herd with the fewest physiologically deficient individuals. With this artificial selection it is possible to obtain a more disease-resistant and size bearing offspring that makes the commercialization of goat derivatives viable.
Artificial insemination or Intrauterine insemination is a medically assisted reproduction technique consisting of artificial deposition of semen in the female's genital tract.[19] It is used in cases where the spermatozoa can not reach the fallopian tubes or simply by choice of the owner of the animal. It consists of transferring, to the uterine cavity, spermatozoa previously collected and processed, with the selection of morphologically more normal and mobile spermatozoa.
The Highland is a Scottish breed of rustic cattle. It originated in the Scottish Highlands and the Western Islands of Scotland and has long horns and a long shaggy coat. It is a hardy breed, able to withstand the intemperate conditions in the region. The first herd-book dates from 1885; two types – a smaller island type, usually black, and a larger mainland type, usually dun – were registered as a single breed. It is reared primarily for beef, and has been exported to several other countries.
An ibex is any of several species of wild goat , distinguished by the male's large recurved horns, which are transversely ridged in front. Ibex are found in Eurasia, North Africa and East Africa. The name ibex comes from Latin, borrowed from Iberian or Aquitanian, akin to Old Spanish bezerro "bull", modern Spanish becerro "yearling". Ranging in height from 70 to 110 centimetres (27–43 in) and weighing 90 to 120 kilograms (200–270 lb), ibex can live up to 20 years. Three closely related varieties of goats found in the wild are not usually called ibex: the markhor, western tur, and eastern tur.
Collies form a distinctive type of herding dogs, including many related landraces and standardized breeds. The type originated in Scotland and Northern England. Collies are medium-sized, fairly lightly-built dogs, with pointed snouts. Many types have a distinctive white color over the shoulders. Collies are very active and agile, and most types of collies have a very strong herding instinct. Collie breeds have spread through many parts of the world, and have diversified into many varieties, sometimes mixed with other dog types.
Cheviot may refer to:
The Galloway is a Scottish breed of beef cattle, named after the Galloway region of Scotland, where it originated during the seventeenth century.
The Sokoke is natural breed of domestic cat, developed and standardised, beginning in the late 1970s, from the feral khadzonzo landrace of eastern, coastal Kenya. The Sokoke is recognized by four major cat pedigree registry organizations as a standardised cat breed. It is named after the Arabuko Sokoke National Forest, the environment from which the foundation stock was obtained, for breed development primarily in Denmark and the United States. The cat is long-legged, with short, coarse hair, and typically a tabby coat, though specific lineages have produced different appearances. Although once rumored to be a domestic × wildcat hybrid, genetic study has not borne out this belief. Another idea, that the variety is unusually ancient, remains unproven either way. The native population is closely related to an island-dwelling group, the Lamu cat, further north.
A cashmere goat is a type of goat that produces cashmere wool, the goat's fine, soft, downy, winter undercoat, in commercial quality and quantity. This undercoat grows as the day length shortens and is associated with an outer coat of coarse hair, which is present all the year and is called guard hair. Most common goat breeds, including dairy goats, grow this two-coated fleece.
A feral horse is a free-roaming horse of domesticated stock. As such, a feral horse is not a wild animal in the sense of an animal without domesticated ancestors. However, some populations of feral horses are managed as wildlife, and these horses often are popularly called "wild" horses. Feral horses are descended from domestic horses that strayed, escaped, or were deliberately released into the wild and remained to survive and reproduce there. Away from humans, over time, these animals' patterns of behavior revert to behavior more closely resembling that of wild horses. Some horses that live in a feral state but may be occasionally handled or managed by humans, particularly if privately owned, are referred to as "semi-feral".
The White Park is a modern British breed of cattle. It was established in 1973 to include several herds or populations of colour-pointed white cattle – white-coated, with points of either red or black on the ears and feet. Such cattle have a long history in the British Isles, and the origins of some herds go back to the Middle Ages.
The Bilberry goat is a breed of feral goat which is believed to have lived in one herd on Bilberry Rock in Waterford City in the south of Ireland for hundreds of years.
The Kinder is an American breed of domestic goat. It originated on a farm in Snohomish, Washington, where in about 1985 an American Pygmy buck was cross-bred with Nubian does. The resulting stock was selectively bred to create a compact but well-muscled goat, suitable both for milk and for meat production. A herd-book was started in 1988; by 2006 about three thousand head had been registered.
The Anglo-Nubian is a British breed of domestic goat. It originated in the nineteenth century from cross-breeding between native British goats and a mixed population of large lop-eared goats imported from India, the Middle East and North Africa. It is characterised by large, pendulous ears and a convex profile. It has been exported to many parts of the world, and is found in more than sixty countries. In many of them it is known simply as the Nubian.
The feral goat is the domestic goat when it has become established in the wild. Feral goats occur in many parts of the world.
The goat or domestic goat is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the animal family Bovidae and the tribe Caprini, meaning it is closely related to the sheep. There are over 300 distinct breeds of goat. It is one of the oldest domesticated species of animal, according to archaeological evidence that its earliest domestication occurred in Iran at 10,000 calibrated calendar years ago.
The Irish Goat is a traditional Irish breed of domestic goat. It is a dual-purpose breed, used both for meat and for milk. It is an endangered breed and may survive only in feral populations. It is distinct from the feral Bilberry Goat of Waterford.
A landrace is a type of domestic animal or plant adapted to the natural and cultural environment in which it originated, with minimal selective breeding. Some have "landrace" in the names:
The Northern European short-tailed sheep are a group of traditional sheep breeds or types found in Northern Europe, mainly in the British Isles, Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland, and the area around the Baltic. They are thought to be derived from the first sheep brought to Europe by early farmers, and for thousands of years they were the only type of sheep kept in Northern Europe. They are hardy sheep, adapted to harsh environments, but they are small and have been replaced in most areas with later types of larger, long-tailed sheep.
The Scottish Dunface, Old Scottish Short-wool, Scottish Whiteface or Scottish Tanface was a type of sheep from Scotland. It was one of the Northern European short-tailed sheep group, and it was probably similar to the sheep kept throughout the British Isles in the Iron Age. By the mid-nineteenth century it had mostly been displaced by the Scottish Blackface and it became extinct on the mainland of Scotland in the late nineteenth century. However, several local types of Dunface survived on islands around Scotland, giving rise to or contributing to existing breeds including the Shetland, North Ronaldsay, Hebridean and Boreray.
American Lamancha, or more commonly, simply Lamancha or LaMancha, is a formally recognized breed of dairy goat, first bred in California by Mrs. Eula Fay Frey about 1927. Later she moved the herd to Glide, Oregon for further development. The Lamancha goat is a member of the Capra genus, specifically Capra aegagrus hircus, like all domestic goats.
An ornamental animal is an animal kept for display or curiosity, often in a park. A wide range of mammals, birds and fish have been kept as ornamental animals. Ornamental animals have often formed the basis of introduced populations, sometimes with negative ecological effects, but a history of being kept as ornamental animals has also preserved breeds, types and even species which have become rare or extinct elsewhere.
↑ Hickey, Kate (7 August 2014). "The Pagan Origins of King of the Goats: Puck Fair". Irish Central. Retrieved 10 November 2014. Article is based on book The Puck Fair: Ireland's Oldest Celebration, by Jerry Mulvihill.
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