Why Did New Zealand's Moas Go Extinct? 180
sciencehabit writes "For millions of years, nine species of large, flightless birds known as moas (Dinornithiformes) thrived in New Zealand. Then, about 600 years ago, they abruptly went extinct. Their die-off coincided with the arrival of the first humans on the islands in the late 13th century, and scientists have long wondered what role hunting by Homo sapiens played in the moas' decline. Did we alone drive the giant birds over the brink, or were they already on their way out thanks to disease and volcanic eruptions? Now, a new genetic study of moa fossils points to humankind as the sole perpetrator of the birds' extinction. The study adds to an ongoing debate about whether past peoples lived and hunted animals in a sustainable manner or were largely to blame for the extermination of numerous species."
Re:Probably because they were big and meaty (Score:5, Interesting)
They've et 'em.
They're gone and there ain't no moa."
I thought this was, you know, settled science (Score:5, Interesting)
New Zealand is so isolated that other than three species of small bat, no mammals whatever evolved in NZ until the day the Maori landed. So we have a Colorado-sized pair of islands inhabited by an assortment of species too ridiculous even for Australia, and with no adaptation to the presence of animals. There's the giant earthworm that glows in the dark: ...the three-eyed lizard... ...the living bug zapper... ...and the 12-foot tall ground-dwelling bird - no animals to run from, remember, that was unfortunately delicious:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/n... [nzherald.co.nz]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T... [wikipedia.org]
http://www.waitomo.com/waitomo... [waitomo.com]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M... [wikipedia.org]
The Maori had no weapons more advanced than clubs, but that was all they needed. Think of it as the world's first, biggest, most environmentally-insensitive tailgate party, after which the species was no moa.
Re:Probably because they were big and meaty (Score:5, Interesting)
QED
Why this is surprising news is beyond me. The extinction of the moa has always been portrayed as a human event ever since I was a kid. Glad they found definitive proof but hardly something I needed to know.
What would have been newsworthy would have been the amazing coincidence of humans showing up and NOT having been the cause.
Re:Uh what? (Score:5, Interesting)
I've always thought that what happened in NZ sort of just proves human nature (not pakeha or Maori, just humans) - the Maori showed up with well developed cultural systems for managing fisheries, having island hopped through the Pacific for maybe 1000 years before they came to NZ - what they didn't have was rules, or experience managing moa, or forestry and as a result burned a lot of it down to get at those tasty moa - basically the same thing the Europeans would do when showing up somewhere new - exploit it like crazy - I'm sure if the moa had lasted longer, maybe if NZ was a bit bigger, people would have figured out how to manage moa - numbers would get low, a tapu would be proclaimed, after a while it would be lifted and the moa population would have stablised ..... by the time people figured it out it was probably too late
One minor point... (Score:1, Interesting)
"So for those who feel all puffy and bad about evil humans"
You've missed a rather crucial difference between animals and humans - we can reflect on the future and think about the consequences of our actions. we have NO excuse to hunt a species to extinction and destroy the enviroment because we know what the outcome will be. Animals pretty much work on instinct and even the ones that do apparently have some limited cogitation - its pretty damn unlikely they have the ability to think years ahead when they hunt for their lunch or reproduce.