Both of those scenarios are distinct possibilities as well. For instance, the settlers could have spread a disease to the birds they didn’t have an immunity to, or perhaps the settle brought rats to the island – rats which then fed on this birds eggs. When one thinks about iconic New Zealand birds, the one that comes to mind is invariably the fuzzy brown kiwi. This is probably due to hunting, although there are other possibilities. Two unfortunate moa fleeing a Haast’s eagle. After settlers arrived it took only two hundred years for these birds to go extinct. Current studies show that the population of these birds were stable and diverse. However, those studies have since been debunked for having too small of a data set to correctly model Giant Moa populations. These studies claimed that the population of these birds were in decline a thousand years before settlers arrived. Some early studies have suggested that Polynesian settlers may not have been entirely responsible for this bird’s extinction. They are known to have been hunted until the 15 th century – the year they became extinct. It is estimated that Giant Moas lived in New Zealand for at least 40,000 years – until they were pushed to extinction by Polynesian settlers who used it as a source of food. It also had a long neck that allowed it to reach high vegetation. It had long, ostrich-like legs and powerful feet. It was covered in feathers and these feathers would have been hair-like and have a reddish-brown tint to them. This bird was about 12 feet tall and weighed around 440 pounds. It has the same general body shape – with a few modifications. It was considered to have been one of the largest moas to have roamed for thousands of years in New Zealand. Its official name Dinornis robustus is translated as meaning strange & robust bird. If you look at Giant Moa pictures, without knowing what you were looking at, then you might think that it was a very large ostrich. Giant Moa is an extinct bird that was discovered in the early 19 th century and was named by Richard Owen in 1843. Its official name – Dinornis robustus – is translated as meaning “strange & robust bird.” It was considered to have been one of the largest moas to have roamed for thousands of years in New Zealand. Giant Moa is an extinct bird that was discovered in the early 19 th century and was named by Richard Owen in 1843.
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