New Zealand Mammals

11002-17101 Kiore or polynesian rat (Rattus exulans) native to the tropical island of Flores in the Indonesian Archipelago until about 4000 years ago. It then spread via ancestral Polynesian voyaging canoes across the Pacific, and is now found from from Easter Island to Hawaii, and from Myanmar to New Zealand. Their date of NZ arrival with voyagers from the southern Cook and Society Islands, has been estimated at about 1280 A.D. Kiore feed on plants, insects, lizards and birds and have had a destructive impact on the ecology of New Zealand. Little Barrier Island *

108 / 303

11002-17101 Kiore or polynesian rat (Rattus exulans) native to the tropical island of Flores in the Indonesian Archipelago until about 4000 years ago. It then spread via ancestral Polynesian voyaging canoes across the Pacific, and is now found from from Easter Island to Hawaii, and from Myanmar to New Zealand. Their date of NZ arrival with voyagers from the southern Cook and Society Islands, has been estimated at about 1280 A.D. Kiore feed on plants, insects, lizards and birds and have had a destructive impact on the ecology of New Zealand. Little Barrier Island *

Kiore 17101 New Zealand mammals rodent polynesian maori rat native feral introduced mammalian pest predator Little Barrier Island