Between about 1930 and 1960 a variety of small goats of the
West African Dwarf group of breeds of West Africa were imported from zoos in Germany to the United States, to be exhibited in zoos or used as
research animals. Some came into the hands of private breeders who kept and bred them as
companion animals. By the 1970s, two distinct types had developed: one broad, compact and solid like the original African stock, the other more delicate, much like a dairy goat in miniature. The latter became the
Nigerian Dwarf, while the former became the American Pygmy, for which a
breed society was established in 1975, and a
herd book started in the same year. In 2007 the
conservation status of the American Pygmy was listed by the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as "endangered". In 2023 its
transboundary risk level was listed in the
DAD-IS breed database as "at risk"; its risk level in the United States is unknown – no population data has ever been reported to DAD-IS by the
United States Department of Agriculture. In 2019 it was not on the
heritage breed watchlist of the
Livestock Conservancy. Two modern American breeds derive in part from the American Pygmy: the
Kinder was created by
cross-breeding with the
Nubian, the
Pygora from crossing with
Angora stock. == Characteristics ==