When New
Zealand’s first settlers arrived in the country in around 1300, they found a
series of islands with lots of seafood, not much by way of edible plant life,
and some of the most extraordinary flightless birds the world had ever seen.
Over
millions of years, New Zealand had developed a unique ecosystem. It has almost
no native mammals and is instead home to a vibrant array of avian life—at most
recent count, some 378 species, many of which cannot be found anywhere else in
the world. Without the risk of mammal predators, a striking number are
shockingly defenseless, and spend their lives trotting sweetly—and
vulnerably—along the forest floor.
Moa
should not have been at risk. These enormous birds stood twice the height of an
adult man, and weighed nearly three times as much. They had few natural
predators, beyond the now-extinct Haast’s eagle, with their size weapon enough
against almost anything. But they were slow, unwieldy, and possibly quite
delicious. With few alternative sources of food, New Zealand’s newly-arrived
Maori people quickly grew accustomed to killing and eating them. Within a
century, the birds were gone forever.
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