Hawaiian wild cattle

What do Hawaiian wild cattle cattle look like?

These are domestic cattle that have gone feral, not a bred herd. After many generations without handling they have turned wild, and they are smaller than the farmed cattle they descend from. They run in herds through the forested parts of the Island of Hawaiʻi, where thousands still live. Their wariness and their small build make them hard to catch. What stands out is the way the animals live rather than any particular look. They are also drawn to warm roads, where vehicles often strike them.

Where does the Hawaiian wild cattle come from?

The first of these cattle arrived as a gift. Captain George Vancouver presented King Kamehameha I with four bulls and eight cows, in 1793 and again in 1794. The king then placed a kapu, a Hawaiian taboo, on hunting them, and that ban held until 1830. With nothing to check them, the herds grew: by 1846 about 25,000 were running loose, with 10,000 more held in a half-tame state. Crops were trampled and people were sometimes killed, so hunting began to cut the numbers. In 1832 Kamehameha III asked vaqueros from California, then Mexican territory, to teach Hawaiians how to manage the wild stock. Their pupils became the paniolos, Hawaiʻi's cowboys.

What the Hawaiian wild cattle is known for

Life in the open has made these cattle wary and quick to avoid people. They are smaller than the stock they came from and better at keeping out of sight, which is why hunters find the work hard. Warmth draws them: cows gather on asphalt that the sun has heated, and vehicles hit them there. That habit gave rise to the local tale of invisible cows on Mauna Kea. Signs along the roads warn drivers about cattle in fog or after dark.

How the Hawaiian wild cattle is bred and kept

Nobody breeds these animals by design. They mate on their own in the forests and on the open uplands. Control rather than breeding is the business of the day: the Division of Forestry and Wildlife, part of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, runs eradication work and holds lotteries giving hunters special access for feral cattle control. Two centuries of spread show how readily the animals multiply without help. It is not among the breeds that the USDA's animal germplasm programme reports to DAD-IS.

What the Hawaiian wild cattle is kept for

The original animals were domestic stock, given to a king, and their descendants are not farmed for milk or meat now. Their main role is as quarry. State-run hunting is used to reduce the herds, and hunters reach some ground through access lotteries. Beyond that the cattle hold no place in Hawaiian farming. They are a population to be controlled rather than a breed to be kept, and their long presence left damage to native plants and a cowboy tradition behind it.

The land and climate of the Hawaiian wild cattle

The cattle live in the forested country of the Island of Hawaiʻi, on tropical island ground, and are also found high on Mauna Kea. Generations of living rough have fitted them to this setting: they find their own food and water, shelter among the trees, and take warmth from sunlit roads. Their numbers have been heavy enough to push many native Hawaiian plants into decline. The uplands and forests give them room to scatter, and that is where hunters go after them.

Who keeps the Hawaiian wild cattle

Native Hawaiians were trained to work these herds by vaqueros who came from California in 1832, and the pupils became paniolos, the Hawaiian cowboys. The kings stand at the start of the story: Kamehameha I received the first animals and made their hunting taboo, and Kamehameha III later arranged the training. Today the work belongs to the state rather than to families or herding communities. The Division of Forestry and Wildlife and its parent department, Land and Natural Resources, organise the control hunts and the access lotteries.

Faith and ritual

Kamehameha I placed a kapu, or Hawaiian taboo, on hunting the feral herds, and it stayed in force until 1830. This was a chiefly prohibition in the old Hawaiian order, and it is the one religious tie recorded for these animals. It shielded them rather than honoured them, letting their numbers grow unchecked for decades. Once the kapu was lifted, hunting began and the herd was no longer left alone. That single taboo shaped the whole later history of the cattle in the islands.

Custom and folk tradition

Rough country and loose cattle make for hard luck stories, and one of these is real. In 1834 the body of David Douglas, the Scottish botanist who gave the Douglas fir its name, was found in a bullock pit on Mauna Kea. Such pits were dug to catch cattle, though in his case murder was also considered. Cows on warm roads gave the uplands another piece of lore: the legend of invisible cows on Mauna Kea, said to come from the crashes there. Signs warning of cows in fog or darkness are a common sight.

Numbers, conservation and the herd book

By 1846, 25,000 cattle were running loose and another 10,000 were held in a semi-domesticated state. Thousands still roam the forests today. A 2007 report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization listed the population as extinct, while the USDA's animal germplasm programme does not include it among the breeds it reports to DAD-IS. Control is handled by the Division of Forestry and Wildlife, which organises hunts and lotteries for special access.

Questions people ask about Hawaiian wild cattle

Good reading and sources

• Hawaiian wild cattle on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data