Campbell Island Sheep

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The Campbell Island Sheep is a feral breed of domestic sheep (Ovis aries) formerly found on Campbell Island, New Zealand.

[edit] History

The sheep were originally introduced to Campbell Island in the late 1890s, following the inclusion of the island in New Zealand’s pastoral lease system in 1896. The lease was first taken up by a Mr Gordon of Gisborne, who shipped a few hundred 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 or merino cross.^[1]

With an initial abundance of palatable food, sheep numbers increased to a peak in about 1913 of 7-8000. Consequently, as the palatable plants became eaten out, the population went into a steady decline until the flock in 1931, by then down to 4000, was abandoned. In 1954 the island was gazetted as a nature reserve. In 1958 a count of the sheep found about 1000 remaining.^[1]

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.^[1]