One of the rarest goat breeds in the world, the New Zealand Arapawa goat is, according to the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, critically close to extinction. A small, dual-purpose animal that was found isolated on the island of Arapawa in the Marlborough Sounds of New Zealand, there is evidence to support the belief that the Arapawa goats are direct descendants of the now extinct "Olde English" breed. In 1773 Captain Jok released two goats on Arapawa Island's East Bay, and on a subsequent trip in 1777 he gave another pair to a Māori chief in nearby Ship Cove. A few decades later in 1839 a visitor to the whaling settlement on Arapawa Island wrote in his diary that it "swarmed" with goats.