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My friend and French cryptozoology colleague reminds me that Charles Darwin was interested in another cryptid beyond the medium ground sloth. Of course, it is one I’ve written about and even mentioned in conjunction with Darwin, but it slipped my mind.

Raynal writes: “With regards to Darwin’s contributions to cryptozoology, you should not forget his interest in the waitoreke of New Zealand.”

Darwin’s son’s book reproduced Charles Darwin’s correspondence that mentioned his interest in this cryptid.

Next to the giant moa reports, the most discussed mystery animal of New Zealand is the waitoreke. Maoris and early colonists on the nation’s South Island frequently reported a small otterlike animal known as the kaureke and also as the waitoreke.

Late nineteenth-century writers on New Zealand’s natural landscape tried to fit the sightings into some logical framework, notwithstanding the reality that no otters, beavers, or other European animals then existed in that country.

Around 1855 the Rev. Richard Taylor interviewed a man who claimed repeated observations of an animal in the Middle Island, near Dusky Bay, on the southwest coast. The witness called it a muskrat from the strong smell it emitted. He said its tail was thick and resembled the ripe pirori, the fruit kie-kie, whose appearance is not unlike that of a beaver’s tail.

Another witness, Tamihana te Rauparaha, judged it to be more than double the size of the Norway rat and to possess a large, flat tail. A man named Tom Crib said he himself had not seen the “beavers” but on several occasions had come upon their habitations. He had seen little streams dammed up as well as houses like beehives erected on one side, having two entrances, one from above and the other below the dam.

A decade or so later Ferdinand von Hochstetter wrote: “From certain terms occurring in the Maori language, and from the most recent observations we may infer beyond doubt, that New Zealand still harbours some few sporadic mammalia, which have thus far escaped the searching eye of science. Besides these names we find the name Waitoreke, which has been only lately clearly defined, having been hitherto applied sometimes to an otter-like, and sometimes to a seal-like animal. According to the reports of Dr. J. Haast, the existence of this animal has been recently established beyond a doubt; it lives in the rivers and lakes in the mountain ranges of the South Islands, is of the size of a large cony with glossy brown fur, and is probably to be classed with the otters.”

The word waitoreke comes from a Maori root word for “water.” Related words such as waikeri (swamp) and waikare (clear water) exist in the Maori language. The waitoreke is also called or confused with an animal called the kaureke.

Theorists have speculated that the waitoreke is an otter species, a seal, a beaver and possibly of the order Monotremata (like the platypus and echidnas; egg laying mammals). Whatever the animal is (or was), it remains unrecognized by science.

The above description is from my Cryptozoology A to Z, (NY: Simon and Schuster, 1999).

So what is being discussed? An otter? A seal? A beaver? Or maybe even the known Asian animal, an otter civet? People may be ready to ask the questions finally.

The attitude may be changing. In 2006, one journal took time to spotlight the waitoreke. Chad Arment pointed this the passage to me, and naturalist Jim Conroy was the author of the following:

IUCN/SCC Otter Specialist Group Bulletin

Volume 23 Issue 1 (October 2006)

The Otter In New Zealand – Did Such An Animal Exist?

Jim Conroy
Celtic Environment Ltd. Old Mart Road Torphins
Aberdeenshire AB31 4JG, UK

There has recently been some renewed interest in the possibility that a species of otter existed in New Zealand. This short note examines the information available. It makes no attempt to evaluate the existence or not of such an animal, rather it is presented to perhaps further discussion on the matter.

New Zealand was reputed to have had an indigenous mammal living in the lakes and rivers of South Island at the time of the first European settlement (see Cook, 1777, Vol. 1: p. 98 for example). No specimen was ever collected, the information being based primarily on second-hand Maori accounts and other unsubstantiated observations.

Early reports from 1844 referred to beavers living on the east side of Lake Wanaka (Hocken, 1898), but Mantell (1851), describing accounts of this animal by the local Maoris, concluded that “altogether the account pointed to an animal resembling the otter or badger, rather than to the beaver”. Von Hochstetter (1867, p 161) mentions a letter received from Julian Haast in 1861, in which the author wrote “I frequently saw its tracks ….. They resemble the tracks of our European otter – only a little smaller”.

An early dictionary (Taylor, 1848), translated the Maori word waitoreke as “otter (uncertain seal)”; but a more recent standard Maori dictionary (Williams, 1957) omits waitoreke altogether; the word being considered ungrammatical (Krumbiegel, 1950).

With the revised interest in the “New Zealand otter” in the mid 1900s, Watson (1960) reviewed all the available literature and concluded that “there is very little ground for any belief in the animal’s existence; nevertheless a shadow of doubt remains and it would be unwise altogether to ignore the possibility however remote it may be”.

The possible existence of the New Zealand otter is discussed, because if such an animal ever existed, its importance and significance could hardly be exaggerated. Darwin (1888, vol. 3: p 6) said of the animal, should one be found it might “turn out something like the Solenhofen bird” (Archaeopteryx).

REFERENCES

Cook, J. (1777). A Voyage towards the South Pole and around the World. (2 vols.). London.
Darwin, F. (1888). The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin. London. (3 vols.).
Hocken, T.M. (1898). Contributions to the Early History of New Zealand. London.
Krumbiegel, I. (1950). Das Waitoreki, ein angeblich neues Säugetier aus Neuseeland. Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde Beiheft, 18: 110-115 [in German].
von Hochstetter, F. (1867). New Zealand. Stuttgart.
Mantell, G.A. (1851). Petrifications of their Teachings; or a Handbook to the Gallery of Organic Remains of the British Museum. London
Watson, J.S. (1960). The New Zealand ‘otter’. Records of the Canterbury Museum, 7: 175-183.
Williams, H.W. (1957). A Dictionary of Maori Language (6th edn.). Wellington.

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