How the Haast's Eagle Ruled Over New Zealand

as little as 800 years ago New Zealand was a world dominated by birds with only three bat species making up every single mammalian inhabitant on the island instead of large herbivorous animals grazing on the vegetation there were the giant MOA birds instead of small nocturnal rodents scurrying on the forest floor there was the Kiwi and he would not need to watch out for large cats but keep an eye on the skies as the apex predator was a giant eagle the hats eagle haast Eagle scientifically known as Harper ganas more a or significantly larger than any living eagle and is the largest bird of prey ever discovered being the only known eagle apex predator or a large ecosystem eagle females are usually larger than males and half a gorlice was thought to be no different with the largest females approaching fifteen kilos in weight twice the weight of the stellar sea eagle the heaviest currently living species however their wingspan was not that long the largest individuals having wings measuring no more than three metres and they were probably much more typically around two and a half meters this is not much larger than the largest living Eagles today in the past this has been mistaken for the birds transitioning towards flightlessness but this is almost certainly not the case as shortening but broadening of the wings is sometimes seen in flying birds to better adapt to forest-dwelling although their wings were short the wing area was probably much larger sacrificing the ability to soar in the skies and to better navigate the forest without clipping their wings on branches the eagle was first described in 1871 while the species was thought to have only died out as recently as 600 years ago this was not an ancient fossil in prehistory the animal only went extinct a few hundred years before its discovery now remains have only been found in new zealand south island apart from one specimen that was found on stewart island their bones have been discovered from sea level well into the mountains and it is possible they may have roamed altitudes right up to the tree line my shower was mistaken that harper cornice was transitioning into flightlessness upon his discovery it was thought that the creature was an obligate scavenger and suggesting that it was a predator was controversial we now know that this couldn't have been further from the truth our gonna swirl surely not above the occasional scavenge but was a skilled hunter their specialized in killing the other giant on the island the 3-meter tool mower as there were no large herbivores on the island to the mower was basically filling the niche of an animal like a giraffe a long-necked grazer it was the largest creature in New Zealand at this time and they were the hosta Eagles favorite food there are numerous examples of more remains found with puncture wounds that could only be made by the eagle this only shows that Mo's were fed upon and not hunted but Harper gorlice has been found all over the island and the only thing that ties all these habitats together are the presence of mowers if past eagle was a scavenger you would expect to find there remains everywhere as they would surely take advantage of all dead prey as they needn't be as picky once the animal is already dead it seems that the Eagles did not just hunt the large MOA but were heavily ecologically connected with a strong predator-prey relationship they were dedicated mower killers they would have preyed on the other large flightless birds that existed in New Zealand at the time but the vast majority of wounds they inflicted on animals have been discovered on MOA remains in particular the South Island species of MOA that was the largest of them all standing up to three and a half meters tall it seemed the most common way they took down these large animals was by swooping down to cut through their pelvis with their lion claw sized talons and then killed them with a strike to the neck of the head they made up for the 15 fold weight difference by hitting them at very high speeds the humans would have shared the island with these giant birds for some period of time as the Mari are thought to have made it to New Zealand no later than 1280 so did humans ever fall victim to the Eagles wrath there is no shortage of sensationalist articles claiming the Eagles have snatched people's babies and then flown away to never be seen again however there is no hard evidence that Eagles have ever killed a human Golden Eagles have been caught on camera killing animals as large as Sika deer and have also been seen trying to knock large animals off cliff edges hoping gravity will do the work for them this shows they can kill animals considerably larger than themselves and are intelligent enough to find workarounds when an animal may be too large for them to attack conventionally by and far the best evidence for Eagles being capable of killing humans is a specimen known as a tong child it was a small australopithecines I'll damn in relative that was killed due to severe head injuries and it is highly likely that these were caused by a large bird of prey most likely the African crown eagle given the evidence of how powerful and cunning the largest living Eagles are I would say an eagle twice the size certainly would have been capable of killing a human but if they ever did or even if they actively hunted humans is considerably less likely the Maori actually have a legend of a giant bird named pal Kai that in some legends would kill any humans although has the eagle was very likely the inspiration for this legendary bird this could easily be due to observing the Eagles murdering mowers rather than actually hunting humans although these Eagles were unquestionable it seems they may have had very humble beginnings it was thought that due to the eagles great size its closest relatives with the largest equals alive today in particular the wedge-tailed eagle that is the largest bird of prey in australia however DNA evidence shows that his closest relative was most likely the little eagle also native to Australia this little bird rarely exceeding a kilo in weight haast eagles evolutionary pathway is probably best compared to the Philippines Eagle that is the largest currently living eagle by body size the Philippines eagle was also lumped in with other giant birds the DNA evidence has it more closely related to the much more moderately sized snake eagles it probably evolved its large size due to lower predator competition on the Philippines than on the mainland half a cornice is estimated to have diverged from these smaller species of eagle as little as 1 to 2 million years ago meaning their size increase would have been very rapid this tenfold weight increase would have almost certainly been due to a lack of large land predators in New Zealand at that time modern-day eagles have to be weary of being chased off their hard-earned prey by a large land carnivore and so are often restraint are only killing what they can carry even the largest Eagles was struggled to carry much more than 5 kilos and we'll probably need favourable wind conditions to carry any more than about 2 kilos despite being able to kill much larger prey than this some species of vulture even known to purposefully follow Eagles around and steal their prey once they've caught it even waiting for the Eagle to cut open the hide for them with their sharp beak before scaring them away the has to equal being the apex predator of the land would have no such worries and will be able to kill their favourite prey the giant MOA and then monopolize the carcass for days only needing to worry about the competition with members of their own species flying animals usually have more demanding energy requirements than land animals for instance although they may go some days without eating the Golden Eagle averagely needs to consume as much as 15% of its body weight a day whereas a coyote needs less than half this and as an animal increases in size it will get exponentially heavier and eat exponentially more energy to sustain itself due to this it is sensible to assume that the hassed Eagle required a larger percentage of its body weight in food than smaller Eagles having much less competition from other predators would have allowed has to Eagle to break free from the size restrictions and hunt much larger prey to satisfy the more demanding dietary requirements and as a consequence you had a 15 quito eagle eating a 200 kilo MOA unfortunately this may have been the reason for its downfall as in order to sustain itself they needed to have a plentiful supply of mowers and when the Mari arrived in New Zealand they also developed a taste for this giant bird they preyed heavily on all flightless birds eventually driving many them to extinction including all species of MOA it is also very possible that early human settlers could have attacked or scared Eagles off their prey and taken the food for themselves this is evidenced by Eagle bones being discovered in Maori settlements the Eagles previously not needing to worry too much about their catches being stolen may have had no defense for this until human colonization of New Zealand birds occupied all major animal niches and the house sigil was the undisputed apex predator defending the same predator niche as a large cat the arrival of humans on the island through the eagle into competition with another predator and unfortunately this was a competition the eagle would eventually lose going extinct as recently as the 1400s thank you for watching if you want to be notified of future uploads consider subscribing thank you for the client support from my patrons especially David Vander roast and Fuzzle worth if you would like to support me as well then you can go to patreon and make a pledge you

Channel: Moth Light Media

Views: 66,818

Rating: 4.9493213 out of 5

Keywords: Largest Eagle ever, Haast's eagle, Harpogornis Moorei, Harpogornis, Eagle, Giant Eagle, Big Eagle, Eagle Apex Predator, Newzealand, Giant birds, Giant Flightless Birds, Giant Moa, Moa, Evolution, Prehiistoric Animals, Prehistoric Animal, Flying Tiger, Paleontology, Moari, Birds Of Prey, Giant Birds Of Prey, Largest Bird Of Prey, Largest Eagle, Island Ecosystems

Id: sRED7pWHbPQ

Length: 8min 50sec (530 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 26 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/shawarma_law]

Cool! Enjoyed it! 🦅