In 1793, goats were introduced to Hawaii’s Kahoʻolawe; their population later reached about 50,000, and 200 years later the last feral goat was removed after severe vegetation loss and erosion
The cultural importance of the island is demonstrated by the some 3,000 archeological and historical sites and features that were documented through 2004. From an island carved by voyagers, farmers and sacred traditions comes the unlikely story of thousands of hungry goats. They grew on Kaho’olawe from a small 18th-century introduction into a herd of…