Arapawa Ram hunting in New Zealand

Arapawa sheep are a rare feral breed found only on Arapaoa Island in the Marlborough Sounds, descended from flocks left there in the 1800s. A century and a half of living wild on rugged island country shaped them into something quite unlike farm sheep. They are smaller, quicker and warier, and they handle steep ground more like goats than sheep. The breed is recognised as rare, with conservation flocks now kept on the mainland.

For hunters the prize is the ram. Mature rams carry heavy, tightly curled horns that can come around a full spiral and beyond, on a compact animal with a dark fleece, usually black or black and white. They are hunted on private land and estates, typically as an add-on trophy alongside a stag hunt, and they make a distinctive mount that most international hunters have never seen. The hunting is spot and stalk in steep tussock and scrub, and they are sharper eyed than anyone expects a sheep to be.