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San Clemente Island goats first arrived on San Clemente Island from Santa Catalina Island in 1875. There they remained feral until the United States Navy, which was under a directive to preserve the endangered flora and fauna of the island that were threatened by the grazing of nonendemic species, sought their removal. After intitial trapping and hunting failed to eliminate the goats, the Navy began a shooting program to exterminate them. This was blocked in court by the Fund for Animals^[1]. Goats were adopted out on the mainland by the Clapp family and by the Fund for Animals^[2]. The U.S. Navy was given the right to exterminate the remaining goats, and the last goat on San Clemente Island was exterminated in April 1991^[3].

San Clemente Island goats are small, fine-boned, and deer-like, and are of Spanish phenotype. They are listed as a critical heritage breed by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. In 2007 their global population was approximately 250 and lives on the mainland U.S.A. and in Canada^[4].

• Journal of Mammology, Nov. 1975, vol. 56, no. 4, pp 925-928, by Johnson, Donald Lee, Department of Geography, University of Illinois, Urbana.

1. ^ Newspaper article by Yvonne Baskin, Staff Writer, San Diego Union, July 2, 1980, p. A-1
2. ^ Newspaper article by Yvonne Baskin, Staff Writer, San Diego Union, July 2, 1980, p. A-1
3. ^ "Use of the Judas Goat Technique to Eradicate the Remnant Feral Goat Populationon San Clemente Island, California", Dawn R'Lene Seward, M.S. Thesis for Wildlife Science under Dr. Bruce Coblentz, University of Oregon. Also verified by personal communication with Dawn Seward, Feb 7, 2007
4. ^ International Dairy Goat Registry

• The San Clemente Island Goat Association
• American Livestock Breeds Coservancy

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