A herd of 50 goats that graze steep cliffs of a seaside resort is set to double in size.
Ten goats were first brought in as an alternative to manage the vast area of cliffside vegetation in Bournemouth by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council in 2009. Now a breeding project is under way to expand the herd to 100 to graze the area between West Cliff to Southbourne. Funding has come from a government agreement with Natural England.
The council and volunteer grazier, Mark Jackson, look after the herd, which includes several different breeds - Kashmir, Boer a South African breed, and feral goats. The mums-to-be are taken off the clifftop about a month before they are due to birth and taken to a nearby small holding. This year’s new arrivals are expected to join the herd on the cliffs in the spring.
Council ranger Tom Bennet said “The locals love them and they are a really good tourist attraction. The herd live on a seven-mile (11km) stretch of cliffs year-round including during the resort’s annual four-day air show. They’ve been used to it for several years now, but Mark and some extra volunteers come and keep an eye on them during the air show. The goats are doing a really good job for us, managing vegetation that’s almost impossible to do by hand. Without the goats, we really struggled to look after this area.”
Feral goats are certainly a damn nuisance here. Some attempts have been made to (re)domesticate them and use their milk and meat but it is a small market locally.
Mountain goats who roamed a Welsh seaside town have been split up, with some moved to England after numbers boomed during the pandemic.
The goats made headlines after venturing from the Great Orme into the town of Llandudno at the start of lockdown. Now 30 will be moved to Bristol and Bournemouth to try to control numbers. Conwy council said it hoped the relocation would keep numbers at “sustainable levels”.
The Kashmiri goats have ventured down into the town for years when food is scarce in spring, rummaging through flower beds in search of something to eat. But their fame spread after being pictured roaming the empty streets during the first lockdown. However, numbers spiked when the pandemic meant contraceptive jabs could not be given to the goats as usual. As they ventured further into the town, there were fears some could be hit by cars as restrictions were eased.
The goats have now been rounded up, with some given contraceptive injections to make sure the numbers in Llandudno remain stable, the council said. The 19 female goats given a birth control hormone will stay in Llandudno.
A further 30 animals have been sent to Bristol and Bournemouth to be part of “conservation grazing projects”. The aim is for the goats to eat invasive and aggressive plant species, allowing rarer plants to grow through.
The Kashmiri goats may be British now but 'twas not always thus:
Where did the Llandudno Goats Come From?
The origin of the Great Orme goats and the story of their arrival in Britain, is interesting. In the early part of the nineteenth century, Squire Christopher Tower, from Brentwood in Essex, discovered a large herd which had recently been imported from Kashmir into France. The idea was to create a profitable woollen industry. Squire Tower decided to purchase two of these goats and took them to Weald Park in Brentwood. The goats flourished and soon produced kids, from which the Squire was, eventually, able to manufacture a cashmere shawl. George IV was highly impressed by this article and was happy to accept a pair of the goats presented to him by Squire Tower.
So began the Windsor herd, which increased rapidly, and in the reign of Queen Victoria, cashmere shawls became extremely fashionable. It is often said that Queen Victoria was presented with the goats by the Shah of Persia, and it may be that these were added to the already existing herd.
Later in the Century, Major General Sir Savage Mostyn acquired two of the Windsor goats, and took them to the grounds of Gloddaeth Hall. It is possible, however, that they were unsuitable as park animals. There is an old Welsh farming practice, known as “Llwgu’r defaid” (starving the sheep). This was a method whereby goats were run with the sheep, in the hope of precluding the latter from straying into dangerous places, where the goats could more easily forage. Perhaps this may have been the reason why the goats were transferred to the Great Orme. Certainly, they are frequently to be seen browsing on extremely narrow ledges, and they climb the steep limestone cliffs with amazing agility.
Goats are sociable animals, and not merely with their own kind. Cats and goats appear to live in harmony together, and it is believed that horses are content if kept with goats. There is little doubt that domesticated goats enjoy the company of humans, but on the Orme, the herd, or “tribe”, are shy creatures. They will not run like sheep, when approached, but usually will walk slowly away, and are almost impossible to observe at close quarters.
Goat Culling
Despite their aloof and retiring nature, the goats have on occasion aroused much emotion amongst the population of Llandudno and the surrounding areas. In 1990, a culling exercise resulted in the re- location of over twenty goats to Hereford and the Island of Flatholm. The resulting outcry amazed and impressed the Aberconwy Borough Council. Much adverse criticism resulted over their handling of the exercise. It emerged that very little was actually known about the animals, and that a proper scientific study of the herd had never been carried out.
Goat Protection
The leader of the protesters was the late Audrey Stallard, to whom the welfare of the Orme Goats was paramount. She worked endlessly to discover what had happened to the animals culled from the herd, and to ensure that nothing like the clumsy methods used to remove them could happen again. However, after only two years, the funding for a study project was withdrawn. In August, 1996, the newly formed Conwy Borough Council, which had taken over the responsibilities of the old Aberconwy Borough Council, suddenly announced that a goat cull, was planned and that twenty goats would have to be removed from the herd. Not surprisingly, this announcement generated fierce opposition and the events that followed were a virtual carbon copy of 1990. Once again the pro-goat lobby greatly outnumbered those in favour of a cull by shooting. What concerned those who wished to protect the goats, was the fact that no recent tests had been carried out to ascertain the state of health of the animals. Nor had there been any goat studies since 1993, when another student had briefly continued the original investigations. As a result of the letters and a petition signed by very many sympathisers, the will of the majority eventually prevailed. At a full meeting of the Conwy Borough Council on 7th November, 1996, it was decided that no goats were to be shot unless they were sick or injured.
If they are feral I am surprised some of the locals weren’t out there with a selection of very sharp knives getting them ready for a few months supply of meat. Nothing wrong with goats meat.
