Kurī
a.k.a Polynesian dog, New Zealand Indigenous Dog, Māori.
Name: Kurī
Kurī.
Phonetic: Ku-ree.
Classification: Chordata, Mammalia, Carnivora,
Canis.
Species: Canis lupus familiaris.
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Highly variable, betrween 20 and 38
centimetres high at the shoulder.
Known locations: New Zealand.
Time period: Uncertain origin, the breed goes
extinct at some point after the 1800s after the arrival of the first
European settlers.
Fossil representation: Skeletal remains, furs,
objects carved from bones, and a few examples stuffed.
The Kurī was introduced to New Zealand with the arrival of the first people sometime in the late thirteenth century. At the time of its arrival, the Kurī was the largest mammalian predator in New Zealand (not counting people), though the Kurī is often credited with being about the size of a red fox (Vulpes vulpes). The Kurī however also seems to have been highly variable with accounts of different sizes, hair colours from black, white, brown and mixed to even long and short haired forms being known. At this point it should be pointed out that the Kurī was not so much a distinct species, but a specific breed. As such the Kurī is classed under Canis lupus familiaris, better known as the domestic dog. This sub species derived from the wolf (Canis lupus) contains all breeds of domesticated dog from spaniels and poodles, to collies and spitz.
The
Kurī was an important
part of Maori society with several uses. One of the main tasks
appointed to Kurī were as hunting dogs, and they seem to have been
quite successful at hunting the flightless birds such as kiwi and
possibly even smaller moa.
In fact the arrival of Kurī, their use
by hunters and possibly even feral populations has been seen as a
significant contributing factor to the demise of the moa and other bird
species in New Zealand.
The
Kurī however were also
food for the Maori, and their meat was readily eaten. One of the
earliest western accounts of Kurī being eaten comes from the famous
British explorer and sea captain James Cook who described the taste of
Kurī flesh as being like lamb. Kurī meat was also a food associated
with priests who would ritually sacrifice Kurī as offerings to the
gods.
Kurī
were not only valued for
their meat, the fur was also used to make things such as blankets and
cloaks. White fur was of particular value to warriors as they would
tie the fur to their weapons so that when the weapon was moved, the
eyes of the opponent would be distracted by the bright fur being waved
around in front of them. Even the bones of Kurī were not wasted and
would be carved into everything from fish hooks to ornamentation.
Kurī
also earned places
within many stories. The first tells of how the Kurī came into being
when the god Māui was so angry with the laziness of Irawaru, that he
grabbed hold of him as he slept and pulling and pushing upon certain
parts of his body, fashioned him into the first Kurī dog. Another
story tells of how a Kurī jumped from a canoe into the sea at night,
and then guided the people on board to the New Zealand coast when it
started howling as it left the water. This is a good point to say
Kurī are only ever spoken about as howling, not barking.
There
are also legends of
Kurī turning to stone, the most well-known being the story of the
explorer Kupe, who left one Kurī dog waiting so long in Hokianga
Harbour that it turned to stone. Another tale tells of how two stone
Kurī supposedly haunt a lake by howling, and anyone who calls back
out to them suddenly find themselves consumed by a fierce storm.
When
the first European
settlers arrived in New Zealand they brought their own dogs with them,
and this seems to have signalled the end for the Kurī as a breed.
The Kurī quickly earned a reputation amongst the European settlers as
lazy with a low drive for work, something that ties in well with the
original legend about their origin, as well as the Māori own
sentiment about the breed. Needless to say the Europeans stuck with
their own more familiar breeds, and the demise of the Kurī breed is
thought to have come about by cross breeding with European breeds, to
even replacement.
Further reading
- The Maori Dog: A Study of
the Polynesian Dog of New Zealand. Auckland. - M.A Thesis, Department
of Anthropology, University of Auckland. - Jan Alto - 1970.
- The
Dentition of the Maori Dog of New Zealand. - Records of the Auckland
Institute and Museum. Auckland. Auckland Institute and Museum. 8:
29–45. - Jan Alto - 1971.
- Pre-European Hunting Dogs in the South
Island, New Zealand. - New Zealand Journal of Archaeology. Dunedin: New
Zealand Archaeological Association. 3: 15–20. - Atholl Anderson - 1981.
-
The Kuri in Prehistory: a Skeletal Analysis of the Extinct Maori Dog. -
MA thesis, Anthropology Department, University of Otago. - Geoffrey R.
Clark - 1995.
- Anthropogenic Factors and Prehistoric Dog
Morphology: A Case Study from Polynesia". Archaeology in Oceania.
Sydney. - Oceania Publications, University of Sydney. 32 (1): 124–130.
- Geoffrey R. Clark - 1997.
- Osteology of the kuri Maori: The
prehistoric dog of New Zealand. - Journal of Archaeological Science. 24
(2): 113–126. - Geoffrey R. Clark - 1997a.
- Maori Subsistence
Change: Zooarchaeological Evidence from the Prehistoric Dog of New
Zealand. - Asian Perspectives. 36 (2): 200–219. - Geoffrey R. Clark -
1997b.
- Advances in New Zealand Mammalogy 1990-2000: Polynesian Dog
or Kuri". Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Wellington. -
Royal Society of New Zealand. 31 (1): 161–163. - A. J. Anderson &
G. R. Clark - 2001.
- For the Love of Dog – A Discussion on Dog
Domestication with an Ethnographic Focus on the Islands of the South
Pacific. - Oxford: University of Oxford. - Carys Williams - 2015.
-
Complete Mitochondrial Genomes of New Zealand's First Dogs. - PLOS ONE.
10 (10): e0138536. - Karen Greig, James Boocock, Stefan Prost, K. Ann
Horsburgh, Chris Jacomb, Richard Walter & Elizabeth Matisoo-Smith -
[Manfred hayser (ed.)] - 2015.
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