January 17, 2008
I’ve gotten really obsessed with these birds. They went extinct sometime between 1500-1900, after the arrival of the first humans to New Zealand. Depending on the species, they ranged in size from 2-6 feet tall. The picture above shows moa attacked by a Haast’s eagle, also now extinct, who often had a wingspan of up to 15 feet. The really cool thing about both these animals is that they filled similar ecological roles as a buffalo and lion would in the Sahara, or a deer and wolf in North America. Except that because mammals had never really eveolved in NZ, those roles were filled by bird species. It feels very alien and a little cannibalistic to think about, which is probably why I am so fascinated by it!

I’ve gotten really obsessed with these birds. They went extinct sometime between 1500-1900, after the arrival of the first humans to New Zealand. Depending on the species, they ranged in size from 2-6 feet tall. The picture above shows moa attacked by a Haast’s eagle, also now extinct, who often had a wingspan of up to 15 feet. The really cool thing about both these animals is that they filled similar ecological roles as a buffalo and lion would in the Sahara, or a deer and wolf in North America. Except that because mammals had never really eveolved in NZ, those roles were filled by bird species. It feels very alien and a little cannibalistic to think about, which is probably why I am so fascinated by it!

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