Old dog can teach us new tricks

This kuri (Canis lupus familiaris) was collected in 1876 in the Catlins. A gift of Mr Anderson, it is now at Te Papa.

The teeth of a dog about the size of a cocker spaniel may provide new insight into how humans migrated across the world's largest ocean to New Zealand, and where they came from.

The kuri - a now extinct breed of dog - was the only domesticated animal successfully introduced to New Zealand from Polynesia during pre-European times.

The research suggests the dogs came to the Pacific island through Southeast Asia, which has parallels with the early movement of pigs and rats - all animals which are associated with human migration in the Pacific.

Kuri were brought to New Zealand from East Polynesia in the colonising canoes that arrived in the early 14th century.

University of Otago PhD student Karen Greig has sequenced the complete mitochondrial genomes from the teeth of 14 kuri, which archaeologists extracted from an oven on the site of New Zealand's first major Polynesian settlement at Wairau Bar, near Blenheim.

The oven was radiocarbon dated to some time between the early 1320s and 1350 - around 300 years before New Zealand was sighted by Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1642.

The state-of-the-art DNA analysis has allowed researchers to trace the dogs' genetic make-up along five maternal lineages - meaning there were at least five closely related common ancestors between the 14 dogs.

The discovery suggests the founding kuri population would have included at least five closely related female dogs.

According to a paper authored by Ms Greig and published today in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE, the arrival of people and dogs in New Zealand represents the endpoint of the last major pre-industrial human colonisation - yet questions still remain about the timing and specific routes taken.

But the new research offers the possibility of refining the understanding of the movement of dogs during that time, and their subsequent movements at local and regional levels, which in turn will give a better understanding of pre-European movement of people in Oceania.

In New Zealand and the Pacific, kuri were kept as watch dogs, hunting dogs and general companions.

They were sometimes also kept for their hair, and on their death they could be used as food for ceremonial occasions.

After the arrival of Europeans, the population of kuri died out as a distinct breed because of inbreeding with the new wave of dogs.

Kuri

• Kuri were first brought to New Zealand in the 1300s.

• The black or white dogs were long-haired and quite small, with short legs and a bushy tail.

• They howled, but did not bark.

• In New Zealand and the Pacific, kuri were kept as watch dogs, hunting dogs and general companions.

• They were sometimes also kept for their hair.

• They were used as food, their bones and teeth were used as industrial materials, and their pelts were used to make dog skin cloaks.

• After the arrival of Europeans in New Zealand, kuri bred with dogs from Europe and died out as a distinct breed.