kioren.
/kɪˈɔːreɪ/, U.S. /ˌkiˈɔreɪ/, New Zealand English /ˈkiore/, /kiːˈoːre/, /ˈkjoːre/ New Zealand.
In full, kiore rat. A small vegetarian rat, Rattus exulans, native to New Zealand. Also transferred.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > order Rodentia or rodent > superfamily Myomorpha (mouse, rat, vole, or hamster) > [noun] > family Muridae > genus Rattus (rat) > other types of
rat1552
white rat1607
kiore1838
1838 J. S. Polack New Zealand I. ix. 314 The kiore, or rat, has been introduced at an early period by European vessels.
1840 J. S. Polack Manners & Customs New Zealanders II. xiii. 125 A thin person [is termed] Kioré or rat.
1843 E. Dieffenbach Trav. N.Z. II. i. vii. 114 The fat of the native rats (Kiore) killed on such lands should be given to the principal proprietor.
1879 in A. R. Wallace Australasia xxvi. 559 The native rat, called Kiore, has been destroyed by the imported European rat.
1949 P. H. Buck Coming of Maori (1950) ii. i. 102 The Polynesian rat (kiore, Mus exulans) arrived in the voyaging canoes... They were probably stowaways.
1959 N. B. Tindale & H. A. Lindsay Rangatira 203 The kiore rat, taken to New Zealand by the ancestors of the Maori..was a small vegetarian animal..now extinct..except on a small island off the coast.
1966 Encycl. N.Z. III. 50/1 By the early 1920s it was believed that the kiore had become extinct. Today it is known to have survived in a few localities in widely separated areas.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1976; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1838