ABSTRACT
From the earliest days of 18th-century exploration, Europeans found it difficult to come to terms with the scarcity of large animals in New Zealand. In a temperate land the size of Britain, and more various in its topography and vegetation, there were plenty of small birds but almost no terrestrial mammals; only tiny bats that were rarely seen, a small introduced rat, and the domestic dog of the Maori. In particular the vast forests struck Europeans as uncannily deserted.
