Coleg Cambria boosts rare goat numbers with breeding programme
- Published
The Bagot is the oldest and rarest species of goat in the UK
A college is helping to boost numbers of a rare breed of goat with six kids born at one of its campuses this year.
Coleg Cambria began its breeding programme with three Bagot goats in 2012 and now has 20 at its Northop campus in Flintshire.
In 2010 the breed was listed as 'critically endangered', meaning there were fewer than 100 breeding nannies in the UK.
It is now listed as 'vulnerable', external with as many as 300 breeding females.
Hayley Burkey, animal practitioner and lecturer at Coleg Cambria, said the college sends the goats to other animal centres and educational institutions.
She said this helps "to spread the population and ensure other students are able to learn from them and help preserve these amazing animals".
Earlier this year the college supplied Tannaghmore Rare Breeds Farm in Northern Ireland with two Bagot nannies and a billy.
Animal Care Technician Sian Bobbett and Animal Practitioner and lecturer Hayley Burkey with two of the Bagot kids
Vivenne Martin, an assistant principal at Coleg Cambria, said: "The Bagot goats are unique and very important to us.
"We will continue to care for them and help to build up the population of these amazing animals."
The first record of the breed in the UK appears in historical documents from 1389.
Sir John Bagot was known to be the keeper of the original herd at his Blithfield estate in Staffordshire.
- Published1 March 2019
