{"id":279149,"date":"2021-12-16T08:41:40","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T08:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciblogs.co.nz\/?p=279149"},"modified":"2022-08-17T21:20:40","modified_gmt":"2022-08-17T21:20:40","slug":"the-dog-is-in-the-henhouse-did-the-kuri-polynesian-dog-have-an-impact-on-new-zealands-wildlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/lost-worlds\/2021\/12\/16\/the-dog-is-in-the-henhouse-did-the-kuri-polynesian-dog-have-an-impact-on-new-zealands-wildlife\/","title":{"rendered":"The dog is in the henhouse: did the kur\u012b (Polynesian dog) have an impact on New Zealand\u2019s wildlife?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The hunter stalks its prey through the forest, following the wafting invisible trail of musky odor straight to the kiwi burrow. Within a few months, the dog has killed over 20 kiwi.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You would think this event occurred recently, given the frequent headlines of dogs killing<\/a> or attacking<\/a> our unique wildlife, or the feral dog populations<\/a> causing trouble in northern Aotearoa New Zealand. Rightly these headlines produce collective anger<\/a> from kiwis (the people, not the bird, though I imagine the birds would no doubt be pretty pissed off at the current situation).<\/p>\n

But travel back in time to when humans arrived in New Zealand over 700 years ago in the late 13th<\/sup> Century and there is a distinct blind spot when it comes to human\u2019s best friend back then, the kur\u012b (Polynesian dog). The prevailing view is that kur\u012b had minimal ecological impact, despite scientists accepting the myriad of other impacts Polynesian, and later European, colonization had on New Zealand from extinctions<\/a> to the widespread burning of forests<\/a>, and the introduction of mammalian predators<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Cultural taonga: As well as human’s best friend, kur\u012b were an important cultural resource for M\u0101ori.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The difficulty of assessing the impact of kur\u012b has meant they are frequently disregarded in the annals of the ecological consequences of human arrival. Some scientists have even boldly gone where no one has gone before in stating \u201cthe Polynesian dog can be exonerated: it was kept so close to camps that it is not a factor<\/em>\u201d, so much so that this has become established scientific dogma (sorry) for the past 20 years despite no evidence to support this. I\u2019m reminded of something I learned in my undergraduate days; that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Why wouldn\u2019t kur\u012b have had a significant impact on New Zealand\u2019s biodiversity, including contributing to the suite of extinctions that occurred shortly after human arrival? Personally, it\u2019s a no-brainer. With this in mind, Karen Greig<\/a> and I combined our archaeological and palaeoecological expertise in our newly published paper<\/a> to find out the potential impacts of kur\u012b on New Zealand\u2019s pre-European ecosystem.<\/p>\n

When Polynesians arrived in New Zealand, they brought with them two culturally important commensal animals, who just happened to be furry predators, sharp in tooth and claw: the kiore (Pacific rat), and kur\u012b. Kiore rapidly spread throughout the country and had a big impact<\/a> along the way. Their arrival can be seen in the natural fossil record<\/a> from the sudden appearance of rat-gnawed seeds<\/a> in sediment cores to the extinct laughing owl hunting kiore<\/a> as an evening meal. There were doubtless numerous extinctions of small animals and invertebrates caused by these novel predators that we are yet to discover.<\/p>\n

Kur\u012b were kept as companions, watch dogs, and hunting dogs. They were also an important cultural resource<\/a> for meat, kahu kur\u012b (dog skin cloaks), and bones for tools and ornaments. So far, kur\u012b bones<\/a> and coprolites<\/a> (desiccated dog poo) have only been found in archaeological sites (though we\u2019ll get to the question of feral kur\u012b soon) but that doesn\u2019t mean their impact would have been any less significant. Substantial numbers of dog bones have been found in pre-European archaeological sites suggesting sizable kur\u012b populations.<\/p>\n

New Zealand was rapidly colonized by humans, to the point that in the archaeological record, they appeared everywhere at once. And where ever humans were, their best friend was as well. Look at the distribution of pre-European archaeological sites in New Zealand, and the impact of kur\u012b becomes clear.<\/p>\n

Using what we know of the impact of dogs in New Zealand and overseas, we can hypothesise what sorts of impacts kur\u012b had on New Zealand\u2019s na\u00efve ecosystem. It\u2019s highly likely kur\u012b filled a predatory role in the new post-human ecosystem by targeting medium-sized prey. Birds were the obvious targets including waterfowl (goose<\/a>, ducks<\/a>, mergansers<\/a>, po\u016bwa swan<\/a>), small moa<\/a>, adzebill<\/a>, takah\u0113<\/a>\/moho<\/a>, other rails<\/a>, k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d<\/a>, kiwi<\/a>, and ground-nesting seabirds including penguins, shags, and burrowing seabirds. But also seals and r\u0101poka sea lions (especially pups), and reptiles such as tuatara, skinks, and geckos.<\/p>\n

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The dog is in the henhouse: Many of Aotearoa’s animals had no defense against furry predators and potentially fell prey to kur\u012b. Figure from Greig and Rawlence (2021)<\/a>.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New Zealand\u2019s fauna evolved for millions of years in the absence of mammalian predators. Rather the top predators in the pre-human ecosystem were birds like the mighty Haast\u2019s eagle<\/a> and Eyles\u2019 harrier<\/a>, which hunt by sight, all the better to see you with. There\u2019s a reason why many of our birds are drab, camouflaged<\/a>, and freeze when predators are around. Sadly, it doesn\u2019t work when our birds stink to high heaven (sorry, k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d) and can be smelled from a mile off by introduced mammalian predators. Granny, what a big nose you have! All the better to smell you with. Add to that, many of our unique animals are terrestrial, flight reduced<\/a> or flightless, ground-nesting, prone to disturbance<\/a>, and slow at breeding<\/a>. All fine in an ecosystem that\u2019s in balance but not when a new predator arrives in town.<\/p>\n

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Keeper of secrets? Kur\u012b bones may hold the key to how big the impact of dogs was in pre-European Aotearoa. Photo by Guy Frederick.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To limit the impact of kur\u012b to direct hunting (whether for their own needs or going on a moa hunt\u2026) is too simplistic. The reality is much more nuanced and no doubt also included direct competition for prey or carrion, disturbance to animals (including chasing, colony disturbance, and abandonment<\/a>), changes in prey behaviour that could lead to decreased reproductive success, and the transmission of diseases. These novel microscopic threats could potentially decimate populations of na\u00efve animals \u2013 much like how diseases introduced by Europeans<\/a> decimated indigenous populations around the world. Dog parasites, which can also be spread by rats, have been found in kur\u012b coprolites. It’s likely that the myriad of impacts of kur\u012b evolved over time as both they, and their human counterparts, adapted to a temperate (and rapidly changing) post-human New Zealand<\/a> compared to their tropical homeland.<\/p>\n

Historical records indicate that by the early stages of European colonization in the 19th<\/sup> Century, feral dog populations were a big problem, especially for sheep farmers. It is not known whether kur\u012b were part of these feral packs or if they were already extinct due to interbreeding with European dogs and genetic swamping. Yet there is every chance kur\u012b formed feral populations before European arrival, just as there are feral dog populations<\/a> in northern New Zealand today. While the jury is still out on this, we need to scientifically entertain this possibility. Feral populations likely had a proportionally greater impact in areas where human population density was low. There are numerous dog bones from pre-European sites with no strong archaeological context that could potentially represent feral kur\u012b. Equally, apex predators could be at such low population densities that they are effectively invisible in the fossil record.<\/p>\n

Overlooked no longer, far from being exonerated, kur\u012b should be included in models of human impact, whether they were independent of humans or not. Kur\u012b mirrored and amplified the already significant impact of Polynesian colonists and their M\u0101ori descendants before the arrival of Europeans, and their own horde of furry beasties. Many questions remain unanswered and only further research will tell just how big the impact of kur\u012b really was.<\/p>\n

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An extinction vortex: Kur\u012b should now be included as having contributed to the ecological consequences of human arrival. Figure from Greig and Rawlence (2021)<\/a>.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The hunter stalks its prey through the forest, following the wafting invisible trail of musky odor straight to the kiwi burrow. Within a few months, the dog has killed over 20 kiwi. You would think this event occurred recently, given the frequent headlines of dogs killing or attacking our unique wildlife, or the feral dog … Continue reading “The dog is in the henhouse: did the kur\u012b (Polynesian dog) have an impact on New Zealand\u2019s wildlife?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40066,"featured_media":280643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87395,12254],"tags":[87409,67419,26515,87440,87480,87488,61,87530,67420,87547],"class_list":["post-279149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment-and-ecology","category-science","tag-archaeology","tag-birds","tag-diet","tag-dog","tag-habitat-disturbance","tag-hunting","tag-maori","tag-palaeoecology","tag-polynesia","tag-predation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/lost-worlds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/lost-worlds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/lost-worlds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/lost-worlds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40066"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/lost-worlds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/lost-worlds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/lost-worlds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/lost-worlds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/lost-worlds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/lost-worlds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}