Angora goat

The Angora goat (Turkish: Ankara keçisi) is a breed of domestic goat that is named after Ankara, Turkey, historically known as Angora. Angora goats produce the lustrous fibre known as mohair.

The Angora goat has been regarded by some as a direct descendant of the Central Asian markhor (Capra falconeri). They have been in the region since around the Paleolithic. Angora goats were depicted on the reverse of the Turkish 50 lira banknotes of 1938–1952.

The first Angora goats were brought to Europe by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, about 1554, but, like later imports, were not very successful.

Angora goats were first imported into Australia in 1832 and 1833. They came from M Polonceau's stud in France to the property of the Riley family of Raby, New South Wales. Pure bred Angoras were imported from Ottoman Empire in subsequent years up to 1873, to properties in New South Wales, Victoria, and later South Australia. Other states followed and there were importations from South Africa in 1873 and from USA between 1890 and 1910.

Angora goats were introduced to New Zealand in approximately 1867 by the Auckland, Canterbury and Otago acclimatisation societies in an attempt to farm animals with more valuable skins. Angora goats initially struggled to gain a foothold but were unsuccessfully trialed for weed-control purposes at Maungaturoto in 1904 and, following escapes, a feral population established at Waipu while a government herd was established at Helena Bay.In the 1970s numbers of the Waipu feral Angoras were captured and used as base animals for a Government initiative aimed at broadening NZ's agricultural base.These Angoras were initially improved with Australian genetics. In the mid 1980s imports from South Africa and Texan genetics (via Australia)were used to further improve the New Zealand Angora.

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