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thumb The British Primitive goat is a landrace breed of domestic goat native to Great Britain and Ireland, and is the original goat of the region.〔 It is considered a rare breed,〔 existing as several, isolated feral herds,〔 as some captive populations in zoological parks and nature reserves,〔〔 and breeding stock on some private farms operated by groups of rare-breed enthusiasts.〔〔 As few as 1,200 individual British Primitives may remain.〔 The variety is also referred to as the British Native goat, the Old British goat, or the British Landrace goat, among more specific names (English, Irish, Scottish or Scotch, and Welsh Primitive or Landrace goat, and Old English, etc., goat).〔〔 It descends from the earliest goats brought to the region in the Neolithic era,〔〔 around 3,000 BCE.〔 It is classified in the ''Northern breed group'' of goats. A population in Northumbria is sometimes referred to the as the Cheviot goat.〔 The British Primitive is among the foundation stock of some modern standardised breeds, including the Anglo-Nubian goat.〔 The breed is comparatively small, with commensurately low milk production. It is hardy and wiry haired, adapted to rough terrain and weather, and able to subsist and breed on its own without human intervention.〔〔〔〔 ==History== The British Primitive goat encompasses what were previously considered four interbreeding landrace varieties: * English Primitive, English Landrace, or Old English goat * Irish Primitive, Irish Landrace, or Old Irish goat * Scottish Primitive, Scottish Landrace, Old Scottish, or Old Scotch goat * Welsh Primitive, Welsh Landrace, or Old Welsh goat Their characteristics were similar enough to classify them together, though some sources have treated them separately, such as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, which considers some of these strains extinct.〔 The British Primitive goat descends from goats introduced around 5,000 years ago, along with some sheep and cattle, to the British Isles by the first farmers in the Neolithic period,〔〔〔 the era of Stonehenge. A small, all-weather animal, it provided these subsistence pastoralists some milk, and was invaluable for its meat, skin, hair and tallow.〔 The ancestral goats were common to the Celtic and Germanic peoples of Northern Europe.〔〔 It survived through the Bronze and Iron Ages, as it was hardy and self-sufficient in foraging in a rough, nutritionally poor environment, required little intervention from humans, and was good at evading predators.〔 The British population of this livestock crossed cultural lines again later, during successive settlement by the Anglo-Saxons and by the Vikings.〔〔 During the Medieval period it was the herding goat of the manor, and the basis of the Cheddar cheese industry.〔〔 Until the late 18th century, there were at least one million British Primitives in Scotland and Northern England, and half a million in Ireland. It was the only variety of goat established in the British Isles up until that era.〔 The native goat became less and less popular as agricultural practices shifted, because of their small size, coarse hair, and large horns.〔 By the time of the 1870s resurgence in goat-keeping, foreign hornless breeds from India, the Middle East, and Switzerland began to dominate, with shorter, smoother coats, and greater milk production, forming the basis of the modern, standardised breeds of the British Isles.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「British Primitive goat」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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