Prior to human settlement, the mammals of New Zealand consisted entirely of several species of bat and several dozen marine mammal species. Far earlier, during the Miocene, at least one "archaic" terrestrial mammal species is known to have existed, the Saint Bathans mammal. The Māori brought the kurī (Polynesian Dog) and kiore (Polynesian rat) in about 1250 CE,[1] and Europeans from 1769 onwards brought the pig, mice, two additional species of rats, weasels, stoats, ferrets and possums and many other species, some of which cause conservation problems for indigenous species.
^Worthy, Trevor; Hand, SJ; Worthy, TH; Archer, M; Worthy, JP; Tennyson, AJD; Scofield, RP (2013). "Miocene mystacinids (Chiroptera, Noctilionoidea) indicate a long history for endemic bats in New Zealand". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 33 (6): 1442-1448.
^King, Carolyn M. (1985). Immigrant Killers: Introduced Predators and the Conservation of Birds in New Zealand. Auckland: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-558115-7.
Further reading
King, Carolyn M. (1995). The Handbook of New Zealand Mammals. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN0-19-558320-5.
Atkinson, U. A. E. (1973). Spread of the ship rat (Rattus r. rattus L.) III New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 3(3), 457–472.