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No extinction is as well documented as that of the New Zealand Moa (pronounced mo-ah).

It was a large flightless bird of the order Dinornithiformes. Weighing up to 250Kg and 2.5 metres high, it was hunted to extinction by the Maoris by about 400 years ago.

The Moa occupied the ecological niche in New Zealand of the antelope, rhinoceros and kangaroo and lived in habitats from forest to alpine tundra.

They were abundant when the Maoris arrived in New Zealand about 1,000 years ago. However there is no real evidence to show that the Maori people were solely responsible for their extinction. It was thought that Moa were easy to catch due to a lack of natural predators although the Harpogonis Eagle was thought to be the main natural predator.

Dr Tim Flannery's book, "The Future Eaters" gives a good account of the extinction of the Moa and he quotes "Prodigious Birds" by Atholl Anderson as a "splendid work on the Moa". Atholl Anderson was also famous for proclaiming that polynesians somehow accidently discovered polynesian islands through his drift theory. This has been disparoved over a decade ago.

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15y ago

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