Waitoreke

In New Zealand folklore, the waitoreke (or waitoreki, waitorete) is an otter/beaver-like creature. It is usually described as a small otter-like animal that lives in the South Island of New Zealand. There are many theories on the waitoreke's true identity, such as it being an otter, beaver or pinniped.
Etymology.
The origin of the name "waitoreke" is not well documented; it may have been an invention. It does not occur in Tregear's fairly comprehensive Māori dictionary of 1891, and was said to be "ungrammatical" by leading Māori anthropologist Te Rangi Hīroa.
Despite this, etymologies have been put forward by researchers:
Since European settlement (late 18th century onwards) the animal has also been referred to as the "New Zealand otter", "Māori otter", "New Zealand beaver", "New Zealand muskrat" and "New Zealand platypus" based on various accounts and theories.
Description.
The waitoreke is usually described as a small otter-like creature sometimes as big as a cat. It is described as having brownish fur and short legs. The sightings usually place the creature near or in the water on the South Island of New Zealand. Its fur is described as being short like that of an otter.
Very little physical evidence proving the existence of the waitoreke exists. Julius von Haast is reported to have obtained a waitoreke pelt in 1868. The fur was brown, with white spots, and the toes lacked webbing. This is inconclusive evidence; the pelt seems to have resembled a quoll's. The common brushtail possum was successfully introduced in 1858 and is now a widespread pest, whereas the introduction of the common ringtail possum ultimately failed. Both animals are unspotted. It is possible there was an attempt to introduce quolls at the same time as the attempts with possums, as quolls were often considered a type of possum at the time; but these attempted founding populations died off soon after.
Sightings.
Evidence for the existence of the waitoreke is mainly based on sporadic accounts of an "unidentified amphibious animal" in the country's South Island spanning well over 200 years. Areas vicinity to Otautau had more records. Some of the more infamous accounts are dubious and/or incongruous - but a significant number of descriptions (particularly from the late 19th century onwards) share a striking similarity to each other and to species known to exist outside New Zealand. The Māori people said that in old times they used to keep waitoreke as pets (Mareš, 1997).
Some of the most notable early (claimed) accounts come from pre-20th-century explorers/naturalists:
Later accounts come from a variety of settlers, farmers, trampers, hunters, tourists and scientists throughout the 20th century, for example, Philip Houghton in the vicinity of Martins Bay. Many of these sightings were assessed in a paper on the subject of the waitoreke by G.A. Pollock in 1974 which led to a search of the area around lakes Waihola and Waipori in Otago during the 1980s.
New Zealand mammals.
The waitoreke would be most remarkable if it exists, due to the fact that New Zealand is one of the few significant landmasses on Earth to have no recent native land mammals. The South Pacific nation does play host to several native pinnipeds (seals, sea lions) and bat species (genera "Mystacina" and "Chalinolobus"; several extinct genera are known from the earlier Saint Bathans fauna) but is most notable for its plethora of bird species that seem to have evolved without the restrictions of mammalian predation: flightless species that would have been fair game for any hunting mammal were most plentiful, and there were even some tiny flightless passerines – a thing almost unheard of, and certainly unknown in the presence of mammalian predators as small as shrews.
New Zealand's dearth of mammals is a result of its separation from the super-continent of Gondwana approximately 80 million years ago, in the Cretaceous period. Recent discoveries in an Otago fossil lake bed suggest that at least one terrestrial mammal species, the Saint Bathans mammal, existed in New Zealand before human settlement.