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Rat Shakes Historians

The first people may have arrived in New Zealand nearly 2000 years ago, over 1000 years earlier than previously thought, according to Dr Richard Holdaway of Palaecol Research.

Holdaway says the results of radiocarbon-dated bones from kiore, or Polynesian rats, suggest that the kiore was here nearly 2000 years ago.

The kiore would not survive the journey on driftwood and could not swim to New Zealand, so they must have come with people.

There is little archaeological evidence that people have been in New Zealand for longer than 800 years. The long gap between the arrival of the kiore and the first signs of people means that the first people to see these shores either did not stay or did not survive. Their only legacy seems to be the kiore.

This surprising new information was discovered during research aimed at finding out how long the kiore has been in New Zealand, and how rapidly it spread throughout the country. Previous research has implicated the kiore in the decline or extinction of several species of small birds, the tuatara, a native bat, and various weta and large beetles.

Radiocarbon dates obtained from kiore bones found in natural deposits show when the kiore arrived in an area, and so can show how long the rat has had to affect the native fauna. The food waste accumulated by predators such as the extinct laughing owl is the richest source of kiore bones.