Campbell Island sheep are a

feral A feral () animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in some ...

breed of

domestic sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated sh ...

formerly found on

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

subantarctic The sub-Antarctic zone is a region in the Southern Hemisphere, located immediately north of the Antarctic region. This translates roughly to a latitude of between 46° and 60° south of the Equator. The subantarctic region includes many islands ...

Campbell Island.

History

The sheep farmers

The sheep were originally introduced to Campbell Island in the late 1890s, following the inclusion of the island in New Zealand’s

pastoral lease A pastoral lease, sometimes called a pastoral run, is an arrangement used in both Australia and New Zealand where government-owned Crown land is leased out to graziers for the purpose of livestock grazing on rangelands. Australia Pastoral lease ...

system in 1896. The lease was first taken up by James Gordon of Gisborne, who shipped 400 sheep, along with timber for buildings, to the island. After financial difficulties, in 1900 the lease was bought out by Captain Tucker of the Gisborne Militia who stocked the island with at least three shipments of about 1,000 sheep, mainly

merino The Merino is a breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monopoly; exports of the bree ...

or merino cross. Two businessmen from Otago, J. Mathewson and D. Murray, became the next lessees in 1916, forming the Campbell Island Company (later a Syndicate) to manage the farm, employing shepherds and shearers to work for one-year periods on the island. In 1927 the lease was auctioned and bought by John Warren, a farmer from

Waitati Waitati, from the Māori Waitete, is a small seaside settlement in Otago, New Zealand, within the city limits of Dunedin. It is located close to the tidal mudflats of Blueskin Bay, 19 kilometres north of the Dunedin city centre. The small Waitati ...

, who brought another 5000 sheep to the island. However, wool and meat prices slumped in 1929 and, two years later, a destitute Warren and his farm workers returned to the mainland, abandoning the farm and the sheep. The lease to the island was declared forfeit in 1934 and expired in 1937. That year the island was set aside for the preservation of its flora and fauna, though its gazettal as a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

did not take place until 1954.Regnault, Bill. (2003). The Feral Sheep of Campbell Island. ''Rare Breeds NewZ'', nos 60, 61 and 6

/ref>Dingwall, Paul; & Gregory, Geoff. (Eds). (2004). ''A musterer’s sojourn on Campbell Island: the diary of Alfred Austin, 1919-1921''. Department of Conservation: Wellington

/ref>

The sheep

With an initial abundance of palatable food, sheep numbers increased to a peak in about 1913 of 7-8000. Gradually, as the palatable plants became eaten out, the population went into a decline, with the flock down to 4000 in 1931 when it was abandoned. In 1958 a count of the sheep found about 1000 remaining. However, there was some subsequent recovery in numbers. In 1970 a fence was built across the island with all 1300 sheep on the northern side being shot, with a similar number on the southern side being left for the time being. By the late 1980s all the remaining sheep were culled, after a rescue expedition in 1975/76 removed ten live sheep for captive breeding in New Zealand. Descendants of the rescued sheep were maintained as a purebred flock until 2005.

References

External links

Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand: Campbell Island Sheep
{{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell Island Sheep Fauna of the Campbell Islands Sheep breeds Feral sheep Sheep breeds originating in New Zealand Invasive animal species in New Zealand History of the New Zealand outlying islands