Post by smedz on Aug 13, 2019 20:30:41 GMT
New Zealand, an island full of sheep farms, forests, invasive species, etc, was once a land full of bizarre animals. The island never had any native land mammals to fill any of the roles in the ecosystem they do on other land masses. However, there were lots of birds on the island. The Kakapo lost the ability to fly as it had no reason to without any land predators around. Another parrot called the Kea unlike other parrots has developed a taste for meat. A large bird, the moa took the role shared by large herbivores, and there were many species of the moa on New Zealand. But like every ecosystem, there needed to be a predator to keep the numbers of moas in check to keep them from overbrowsing. That predator came in the form of a large bird of prey, the Haast's Eagle. This was the largest eagle known to man, and with the large size came great strength. Some modern eagles can kill impressive prey, Harpy Eagles kill sloths, monkeys, lizards, and snakes. Phillipine Eagles hunt monkeys, African Crowned Eagles also kill monkeys (sheesh, monkeys seem popular). The Golden Eagle on the other hand has been documented killing Roe Deer. So it's not surprising to learn that Haast's Eagles were able to kill Moas up to 200 kg. This wouldn't have been possible with the presence of land mammals around because according to the Competitive Exclusion Principle no two species can occupy the exact same niche in the exact same place at the exact same time. But why did they become extinct? The answer: Humans. Now your're probably thinking "Oh of course humans caused it!" When the Maori arrived in New Zealand and when they learned moas tasted good, they hunted them way to often. At a much faster rate than they could reproduce, and with the moas in decline, the eagles would have been starving. And would have been looking for other food sources, and the most suitable food source being humans themselves, I can easily imagine these eagles becoming man-eaters, and with people being killed, there would have been revolt, and the competition with humans and the revolts by humans after killing a person contributed to this raptor's extinction.