The World Canine Organization officially recognises around 370 different breeds, including the fashion-victim Chinese Crested, with its nude, greyish body accessorized with tufts of long blonde fur; the Puli – essentially a living mop, with its full coat of long dreadlocks – and the aspiring lion, the Tibetan Mastiff, famous for its massive size and long golden mane.
The thing is, there used to be more – many, many more.
For centuries, the world was home to a kaleidoscopic array of outlandish dogs – some of which were so bizarre, they sound made-up. In Hawaii, there was the Poi, which only ate vegetables and was treated more like a goat than a relative of wolves.
The intermixing between modern “breeds” and ancient “types” raises a tantalizing possibility – could there be Poi in existence today, disguised as ordinary dogs?
This idea is what led the animal curator Jack Throp to attempt a de-extinction at Honolulu zoo in the 1960s. By breeding dogs with Poi-like characteristics together, and then doing the same with several generations of their offspring, he hoped to concentrate the type’s genes until it emerged from the ether of hybridization.
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