{"id":561245,"date":"2026-08-06T23:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T23:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/561245\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T23:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T23:46:10","slug":"wild-goats-chilling-on-suburban-napier-cliff-face-are-enjoying-nearby-residents-fruit-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/561245\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild goats chilling on suburban Napier cliff-face are enjoying nearby residents\u2019 fruit trees"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe do get calls about them. We are exploring potential solutions,\u201d a Napier City Council spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n

\"WildWild goats have started to appear again on Hospital Hill, catching the eye of motorists. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

She did not expand on what those solutions could be, but said the council\u2019s animal control team<\/a> and parks team were both involved.<\/p>\n

In 2009, more than a dozen wild goats<\/a> were moved from a bushy area of Napier Hill (which incorporates Bluff Hill and Hospital Hill) to Waim\u0101rama.<\/p>\n

Hawke\u2019s Bay Today reported, at the time, that the move ended an almost century-old association with wild goats on the hill.<\/p>\n

But now they\u2019re back, with appearances on Hospital Hill beginning roughly a year ago.<\/p>\n

A truck driver, who preferred not to be named, said he\u2019d driven past the hill for about 20 years and hadn\u2019t noticed wild goats before<\/a> – until recently.<\/p>\n

Hospital Hill resident Ali McCarthy has lived in her home there for 13 years.<\/p>\n

She also hadn\u2019t seen or heard of any wild goats in the area, during that time, but that changed about 18 months ago.<\/p>\n

\"TwoTwo of the four wild goats that have been catching the attention of passers-by. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

She said about six or seven goats started roaming in the neighbourhood, including eating fruit and vegetables on residents\u2019 properties.<\/p>\n

She said, in some cases, they would wander down people\u2019s driveways.<\/p>\n

She said the council got involved and, around late last year, a contractor was brought in to reduce the numbers.<\/p>\n

In recent months, she said a small number of wild goats had – once again – started appearing.<\/p>\n

She said, as far as she could tell, they were based in the bushy gorge behind Main St.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is where you see most of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said it was unclear how they came to be there, but most people she\u2019d spoken to thought they had been dumped in the gorge.<\/p>\n

Enviropest offers pest control services across the North Island, including for wild goats.<\/p>\n

Owner Mick Verian said in small numbers – like four – wild goats wouldn\u2019t cause many problems, other than perhaps getting into someone\u2019s garden.<\/p>\n

However, he said they were a pest in larger numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is, for example, if you have three nannies [adult females] and a billy [adult male], well those four goats probably, realistically, turn into seven or eight next year, the following year you have probably got 10 or 12, then from there it just starts getting silly unless you control them.\u201d He said it was common for goats to have twins.<\/p>\n

Verian said goats have a strong digestive system and eat plants and food other animals don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

He said that can be \u201cquite detrimental\u201d for native bush, and can even cause erosion.<\/p>\n

With larger populations, wild goats can also pose a risk for motorists, as they can potentially walk in front of a vehicle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can be quite a problem on the side of any public road.\u201d<\/p>\n

In July, more than 200 wild goats were culled near Cromwell<\/a>, following a NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi-contracted operation to reduce the number of wild goats next to State Highway 8.<\/p>\n

Napier City Council\u2019s Animal Control Bylaw 2021 does not prohibit goats as pets, but does include restrictions around the responsible keeping of animals.<\/p>\n

The Department of Conservation (DoC) manages wild goat populations in parts of New Zealand, but is not involved with any programmes around Hospital Hill.<\/p>\n

According to DoC, goats were introduced to New Zealand by European settlers for food and also for weed control.<\/p>\n

Goats that escaped or were released thrived in the country\u2019s grass hills, forests and scrubland areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe do get calls about them. We are exploring potential solutions,\u201d a Napier City Council spokeswoman said. Wild…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1443,192,20133,1558,13633,65188,276156,21534,2065,60893,305,31037,2241,13620,51720,3607,35479,36661,111,43,139,69,90,45641,5301,17146,530,58933,2846,10419,6923,15391,102],"class_list":["post-561245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-about","tag-are","tag-attention","tag-been","tag-catching","tag-chilling","tag-cliffface","tag-enjoying","tag-fruit","tag-goats","tag-have","tag-hill","tag-hospital","tag-leading","tag-motorists","tag-napier","tag-napiers","tag-nearby","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-passing","tag-plants","tag-questions","tag-residents","tag-suburban","tag-them","tag-trees","tag-what","tag-wild","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}