Moa - New Zealand Bird of the Week

welcome back to another installment of New Zealand bird of the week we're in this video I will be talking about the mower a group of birds which were some of the most arrived and interesting birds that have ever existed I hope you enjoy mower were a group of nine species of bird within six genera in three families that inhabited the islands of New Zealand until fairly recently and some of the birds were likely among the tallest the surfer ever existed they were highly derived animals and possessed new more anatomical differences that's made them truly unique organisms thriving on their Island homes until they were swiftly wiped out at the hands of humans this is the story of the mower for a start what's the mower our closest related to and even how they arrived in New Zealand has been a source of a debate it was long since believed that Samoa and Kiwi were closely related alongside the Australian EMU and cassowary given their proximity to one another and became isolated on New Zealand after the landmass of Gondwana has begun to separate but through recent genetic examination it has instead been found that mower and Kiwi are quite distinct it was found that the Kiwi were in fact most closely related to the elephant birds of Madagascar which indicates that's ratites the group of which the mower and these birds belong to independently evolved flightlessness as they colonized two land masses resulting in independently evolved flightless populations of which some maintained some semblance of wings while others lost them altogether it was also found that's the order containing a mower that dine on earth áformer actually sister taxa to the order containing the South American tin Amol and that's the common ancestor of the two groups diverged around 60 million years ago having arrived in New Zealand these ancestral birds had to adapt with a dynamic geological landscape a country positioned between two active fault lines that continuously altered the landscape which led to the complex lineage of mower that we know of the southern alps the mountain chain formed around six million years ago and the habitats change and fragmentation on both islands as a result including increased volcanism and landscape changes from this mower while already having diverged since the Miocene went through the to radiation from which all named more species evolved to fill in the niches vacant in the country from sub-alpine to temperate forests MOA thrived in these unique and varied environments and due to their radiation allowed for niche partitioning to take place meaning that all of these remarkable birds could coexist in terms of the biology and anatomy of MOA they are well known from multiple complete skeletons as well as remarkable soft tissue remains which have preserved skin feathers muscle tissue and even organs due to their recent extinction MOA were comparable in many aspects to other rat eyes including a small heads positioned on the long neck a rigid torso long legs under covering of fur like feathers in many aspects though MOA were very unique birds with a number of characteristics that are not seen in any known birds for as long as MOA have been known to science most skeletal mounts and artistic portrayals whether they be paintings or sculptures have depicted to the birds with an ostrich like posture which displays the full height of the largest of birds recent examination of MOA vertebral and cranial anatomy suggests a different posture that's the birds would have carried their heads in a lowered position when at rest and in a curved position so that's the head is level to the back kiwi and cassowaries as well as many non-avian dinosaurs adopt or adopted a similar posture which in these organisms allows for more efficient travel through dense forests this isn't to say that MOA were incapable of raising their necks into an erect posture as they have been depicted in maori rock arts with fully extended and necks which was more impressive to the artists of the time although from a biological aspects they would have only adopted this posture when actively browsing threat displaying or when surveying their surroundings MOA legs were also generally longer and more robust than other rat eyes with particularly elongated Tibbett are sicker and shortened Tarso metatarsus the feet were also large and broad with most species possessing four toes with the fourth toe being small and often just a spur on the leg these limb proportions with their shortened distal segments suggests that they were not built for active running like ostriches or EMU and that's while they could be fast when they needed to their legs were more maneuverable than their relatives with their sturdy legs and shorter foot bones making them more a bot weaving through trees and other obstacles when evading aerial predators like the Hoffs eagle as well as this mower also seem to have taken their flightlessness to a level unparalleled to that of any other flightless birds in that they uniquely lack any four limbs due to the absence of the tbx five gene the gene responsible for forming of the pectoral girdle as a result the sole remnant of the forelimb in the skeleton is a tiny vestige of bone at notice of scapular coracoid a unique feature possessed only by the mower which lies against the rib cage and is no larger than a human finger indicating that there was no useful function in possessing four limbs in these birds the internal anatomy of MOA is largely unknown due to them being extinct but as their extinction was so recent it means that's remarkable insights can still be gathered about their anatomy and even the sounds they would have made brilliantly preserved specimens of the eastern unstopped legs MOA were found with ossified tracheal rings within their body cavities revealing the form and structure of the windpipe these remarkable discoveries show that these two species and potentially the bush MOA possessed a convoluted windpipe from the neck the windpipe passes downwards on the left side of the body before doubling back in on itself and then backward into the lungs with the organ being far longer than their necks modern birds that possess this feature such as cranes and swans are known for producing deep resonant vocalizations which implies that MOA were highly vocal animals that could produce a broad range of situation specific calls which would have been heard over great distances from contacts calls alarm calls to mating calls [Music] this gives valuable insights into not only the sounds these animals would have been able to make but in the case of these two MOA allows for a clearer picture of their behavior and social structure which will be covered once I discuss all the different motor species in detail MOA beaks and skulls are typically larger and broader than compared to other ratites enabling a wider variety of plant material to be eaten the orbits were large and the nostrils were located at the base of the beak having an exceptionally well developed sense of smell as indicated by large olfactory lobes a feature that is also shared with Kiwi this enhanced ability to process odors suggest us chemical communication was an important aspect of locating other MOA which would have been an important aspects of MOA behavior the Bills of MOA varied greatly among the group from robust sharp and pointed to snip branches and flax to weaker rounded ones more suited to plucking soft leaves and fruit this diversity of beak shape as well as differing Heights and stomach structure allowed these birds to coexist within their own as separate niches feeding on different plant species different parts of the same plant or in different seasons this leads in nicely to the next part of the video in which I will be discussing the remarkable Manhunter II of MOA and all the species the group contains MOA taxonomy and even how many species of MOA use to exist has been until quite recently convoluted since the first description of MOA by the now-infamous Sir Richard Owen the taxonomy of moer has been in constant review with us many as 64 species in 20 genera proposed over the past 170 years which has since been narrowed down to the present consensus of nine species even in such a fairly small country like New Zealand the diversity of these large birds is truly remarkable and some of the most imposing belonged to the family known as dine on earth a day the South Island giant MOA dine or miss robustus was the largest of the group with the largest birds standing up to two metres tall at the shoulder and being able to reach foliage and astonishing 3.6 meters off of the ground making them the tallest bird species known birds would have ranged widely throughout the South Island in all vegetated habitats from coastal dunes to inland shrub lands forests and sub-alpine herb fields because of their height they were able to reach a vegetation that's no other mower species on the island could reach filling the niche of giraffes in the country utilizing their lower necks to reach into trees they would then utilize their small broad flattened heads and robust and slightly D curved to build to pull down plant material whether they be twigs hole branches shrubs or berries and flowers compared to other species of MOA these birds were more likely built compared to their relatives and although often four times heavier than other MOA their bones were comparatively thinner until less robust meaning that despite their large size at around two hundred two kilograms they would have been quite agile but also less resilient to impacts on their legs meaning that they would have led a less active lifestyle than their smaller but more studious plumage is also known in these birds and it has been found that's like many New Zealand Birds they were more dull in coloration possessing long reddish-brown hair like feathers up to 18 centimetres in length across the body except on their lower legs in terms of their nesting it has been found that South Island's giant MOA utilized the rocks or hollow trees as shelter for their eggs which once the good spots was found they were likely reused over many years indicating that they bred as isolated pairs rather than in colonies building up fat reserves in summer while guarded the nest in autumn which cannot be inferred from emu that exists in a similar latitude to the MOA constructing the nest out of twigs and other plant materials a single or potentially two whiter eggs would be laid in a shallow bed of plant materials the extremely large eggs would have weighed an estimated four kilograms one fresh and likely had an incubation period of longer than two months as in other rat eyes once the egg has been laid the male would have incubated the most fragile egg of any avian being a remarkably thin 1.4 millimeters despite being the size of a rugby ball to avoid crushing the egg the male bird instead of sitting on the nest would likely have instead wrapped their long necks around the nest for warmth without the risk of a potential breaking all the while eating very little this example of breeding ant chick rearing is known as reversed sexual dimorphism which in these birds was taken to an extreme level and on a scale unprecedented in other birds or mammals anywhere else on earth the difference in size being so remarkably different that the two sexes were once classed as different species female birds were 150 percent taller than their male counterparts and an astonishing 280 percent heavier like modern birds which demonstrates such high degrees of female biased sexual dimorphism female birds were likely to have mated with multiple males within their home ranges and would have competed aggressively for the males with the best presented territories under the most impressive at vocalizations once the egg had been laid the female would wander off and potentially not even return until the following breeding season with the male raising the chick on their own because of the huge size of the egg the contents of the yolk would have provided enough energy for more chicks to develop under grow for a long time this meant that as soon as the chick hatched in spring they would have been a precocial being able to see run and feed to themselves immediately they would have had to then bonded to their parents following them for at least a year until they were large enough to fend for themselves no plumage from a mower chick has ever been found although given the coloration are possessed by other hatchling ratites it is likely that they were speckled or stripes to break up their outline in order to camouflage themselves from hungry Eagles and Terriers from studies into the growth of MOA from their lower leg bones it was found that Steven L Giants MOA although just a year old already were at least 16 kilograms in weight already making them heavier than any flying bird today by the time they reached their full size a few years later they would have weighed 15 times as much like juvenile ostriches in Africa young and MOA may have supplemented their diet with lizards insects frogs and other organisms to fuel their rapidly increasing ways it is thought that these MOA reached sexual maturity after a few years but their social behaviors would have prevented them from actually entering the breeding pool until they were much older Terra toriel birds such as cassowary do not breed until they are dominant enough to claim their own territory and maize which in the case of MOA meant that they may have had to wait up to ten years until they could establish a territory and have a chance to mate the large females could have lived for over half a century producing an egg or two every season and from what can be gathered from skeletons preserved in regions like pyramids Valley and Belle Hill vineyards eighty percent of the birds were adult indicating that's populations comprised of mostly long-lived slow breeding adults and as will be discussed later was a strategy that would ultimately fail as humans appeared on the scene the north islands giant MOA was quite similar to this South Island counterparts although they differed from them in nuts they were half a metre smaller in total Heights as relatively longer we can egg under more down curve to beak the high level of sexual dimorphism is also present in this species although with female birds being slightly smaller and males being the same size as those on the South Island they were a little closer in size but were still noticeably different size also varied depending on their wide range of habitats as lowland populations in shrubland tended to be larger than the upland populations enclosed forests quite the contrary to the large members of dynalift the day the aptly named a little bush MOA was one of the most common and widespread of the MOA group inhabiting the closed canopy lowland forests throughout the country birds were slender animals with the long legs adapted for speed and agility therefore making them the smallest MOA in terms of mass weighing at most 30 kilograms and being a 75 centimetres tall as the hips like the larger Dino listed a birds would have nested on the ground or in rock shelters and from field research and DNA it was likely that's birdsbritain solitary pairs and as they were more mobile like members of dine on of the day they were more solitary and therefore has the broadest range across New Zealand able to survive in many different environments from the heavily forested areas of the West Coast to the sub-alpine hills of the east from their size they likely would have taken a very slow eight years to reach adult size and skeletal maturity which like the giant mower would have also been the time when they would have been able to mate in terms of diets whistle Bush mower possessed of relatively short sharp edged bill which indicates that they were more suited to cutting than compared to other mower species this attribute coupled with the large number of gastroliths found in the birds gizzard and coprolites suggests that they browsed on a wide variety of Woody fibrous plants and other tough plant materials with a biomechanical study confirming that bush mower fed using a unilateral clipping action much of these birds appearance is well known from well-preserved remains including a partially articulated skeleton that that's was preserved with substantial mummified material revealing that this species was covered in yellowish brown to pale colored feathers which measured out in length heavy foot is amoA were very bulking mower that were restricted to the South Island where they were common in lowland forests shrubland edges and wetlands as their name suggests the heavy footed mower were exceptionally bulky species and were the largest mo of relative to their size as well as being the third largest species overall standing about 120 centimeters tall at the hips and weighing about 163 kilograms pinger so strangely proportioned that there describer Frederic Hutton characterized them as absurd looking birds had relatively short and sturdy legs which were supported by massive feet and in turn supported they're almost as spherical bodies study of feathers from mummified remains suggests that's heavy footed amoA had a speckled pattern similar to the little spot into Kiwi as well as other feathers that's were planar or slightly Street like a woolly elephant their large bulky bodies would have helped them bulldoze vegetation and their large size and shaggy feathers would have helped them cope with cold temperatures a large olfactory chamber suggests such they had an acute sense of smell which may have been useful for species recognition as well was potentially being an adaptation for a nocturnal lifestyle birds possessed a round head and a long and sturdy D curved bill with a pointed beak this more powerfully built beak was adapted to handle tougher vegetation such as wood herbaceous plants and flux and from discovered coprolites it was found that this species hosted sev types of tax or specific parasites like nematodes the altitude '''l limit for this species appears to have been a 700 metres above sea level as no fossils for them have been found as of yet above this point those underwent significant changes in relative abundance and distribution in response to environmental changes during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene climatic and environmental fluctuations during glacial cycles cause their preferred habitats to expand and contracts repeatedly resulting in two genetically distinct populations forming in the northern and southern half of the South Island contrasting to their giant size they are also notable in a far smaller scale in that stay the only molar species to have MOA embryo is attributed to them giving some insight into their developmental stages the smallest of the three molar species in the genus Patchi Ernest to which the previously discussed heavy-footed MOA belongs to the man tells MOA being named after New Zealand naturalist and politician Walter Montel the son of paleontologist Gideon Mantell was confined to the North Island the largest of birds went around 36 kilograms which is just slightly heavier than a slimmer Bush MOA of which the man tells MOA is the second smallest MOA species in the country the study bill like the heavy footed Hamoui also meant that they may have had a fibrous diet the crested MOA was the large thick-set bird with robust legs and well not as robust as the massive heavy footed MOA was still a large bird at around 90 kilograms in weight Krista to MOA were confined to the South Island and mainly inhabited subalpine shrub lands and grasslands of 800 metres above sea level the birds were named as such due to the possibility that they would have been the only MOA species considered to have had crest feathers which would have grown from distinctive small feather pits on the front half of the top of the skull which may have been utilized for courtship displays these cranial pits are also occasionally found in darkness animal optics and other Pocky Ornish species although there were not as numerous as in the crested mower unfortunately little else is known about this species of MOA as they had a relatively small and inaccessible habitat and as such even the proposed feathers the bird was named after have of yet never been found so their coloration and size is unknown these birds were highly elusive and are therefore poorly known it was even considered to thus until recently the species had become extinct around 10,000 years ago during a period of significant climate upheaval the youngest verified remains have been dated around this time and this mower the size already being the rarest and hoist understood of the nine species was also the only species to have never been found in human archaeological sites then in 2012 a specimen was found in the entrance to the Balmer cave system on mount Owen in Nelson that's proved that's their time of extinction was actually the complete opposite of what was previously thought the specimen was radiocarbon dated that's being around 560 years old meaning that the bird must have died between the years thirteen ninety-six and fourteen forty to just two centuries before Abel Tasman expedition reached the west coast of what would be named New Zealand this discovery meant that's rather than the first mowers have vanished from New Zealand they were likely the last and given the remote habitats would have been inaccessible to hunters meaning that they may have survived for quite a while after their relatives went extinct as we'll get into stouts legs MOA were a shorter leg bulky mower thus was one of the most widespread species that varied in size over the length of the country typically weighing around 109 kilograms for the female birds with the male birds being comparable in size to turkeys birds lived in the vegetation mosaic of grasslands shrublands forests found in the dry regions of the North and South Islands especially in Canterbury and Otago and with their blunt and relatively weak beaks they would have browsed on a variety of soft herbs shrubs and fruits like the eastern MOA these birds possessed a long and convoluted windpipe to assisted far off communication producing low-frequency sounds likely similar to that of cassowary the eastern MOA was a common species found in the eastern South Island being considered a distinct enough to be placed in its own genus EMU as' like the similar butts largest out slagged MOA they had a relatively small head with a delicately pointed D curve to bill indicating that they fed on softer leaves and fruit being around 80 kilograms in ways birds have been found across the east and south island from the lowland swamp forests of Canterbury to the coastal plains of Otago a remarkable mummified neck found an Ernst Lloyd cave in 1871 which was preserved through a combination of Otago strike climate and the location of a temperate cave meaning it was able to be preserved for a remarkable 2,000 years on one side the white bones of the vertebrae are exposed and on the other the mowers flesh and muscle left mostly in tagged along with crispy skin and patches of bristles which would have been the basis of feathers in life hundreds of thousands of these birds have been found throughout Samoa hunt accounts across the South Island which raises some interesting questions about their social behavior large flightless birds of the open plains tend to be more social than those that dwell in their deep forests ostriches can form groups of up to 50 during certain seasons and to lay their eggs in communal nests incubated by several males while the shy cassowary on the contrary keep to themselves except when mating or defending their territories the sheer number of Eastern MOA suggests that's they would have encountered each other more often meaning that they may have even flocked together some evidence of communal breeding grounds has been discovered near Lake Grassmere in Marlborough which was found covered in broken eggshells suggesting they gathered together to take advantage of the warm sand to incubate their massive eggs the upland MOA was one of the smallest species of MOA being lightly built and weighing around 30 kilograms this mole species is uniquely the only member of its family that's being a mega lap too rigid a and through morphological characteristics has been determined to be the most basal of all MOA a planned MOA were relatively small and agile not being as bulky as most members of Ameer day yet stockier and shorter legs than members of dine order today birds were found commonly in the South Island subalpine zones around 2,000 metres above sea level especially in Nelson Otago and Fiordland birds are further unique in that unlike other known most species a plant more do not to pronounce any obvious sexual dimorphism in regard to body size their eggs are also a greenish blue whereas other MOA laid white eggs the peak was particularly elongated and pointed indicating that they were selective and precise feeders with coprolites and gizzard to contents supporting this as they show that a plant mower fit on a variety of Alpine herbs as well as browsing from shrubs and trees the presence of parasites that typically affect aquatic or wading birds suggests that a plant mower also fed around to the margins of Alpine Lakes where they would have eaten aquatic vegetation like other herbivores that inhabits high-altitude environments a planned mower would have engaged in altitude in all migrations in response to snowfall and food availability moving during the autumn and winter months where food was more accessible and returning to that upland feeding grounds during spring and summer the feet were also proportionally larger when compared to other mower with noticeably long and strong toes and thick claws that were adapted for climbing up steep rocky slopes and for walking across a snowy terrain unlike other mower which had scaly skin covering a planned mower had feather pits down to the basis of the toes indicating that's the whole leg and much of the foot was feathered an adaption seen among other cold adapted birds such as ptarmigans the fact that Birds displays little sexual dimorphism also gives some insight into their behavior suggesting that ecological segregation among sexes was limited implying that a plant MOA were potentially more gregarious than other mower species the best modern analogue for reconstructing a plant mower social behavior may be the South Island Tarka hay which living in the same regions as these birds once did form a family groups consisting of a monogamous breeding pair and their offspring these birds are most well known for the remarkable mummified remains found over the years with more of these birds being found mummified than any other mower species all of which preserving these extinct birds in exquisite detail mummified remains showed that birds had two types of feathers with some having a grayish white base becoming blacker and ending in a white tip giving off a muscle defect with others having a plane or slightly streaky appearance this mottled plumage covered to the whole body extending to the base of the bill and as mentioned earlier cover to the lower legs articulated skeletal remains with the dried soft tissue remains have also been recovered from cave deposits which these include a complete head which has preserved the tongue eyeballs and part of the neck in remarkable detail as well as complete feet that have sometimes circulated and spread around the Internet as that of a non-avian dinosaur and even a complete leg that indicated that this individual bird was molting all of these remarkable mummified remains mean that a plant MOA are the best-known MOA species when it comes to their anatomy and gives us a tantalizing glimpse into what once was a plant MOA are really found in a maori middens which suggests they were not hunted nearly as heavily as their lowland relatives this was due to their colder and more inhospitable habitats which was typically avoided by Maori due to its treacherous ascent and descent and lives were often lost when trying to traverse the terrain as such it has been suggested that a plant MOA may have outlived other MOA by as much as 100 years before they're generally accepted date of extinction in the 1500s MOA were extremely successful animal was in New Zealand being the dominant herbivores in their ecosystem for millions of years that was all until an intelligent group of mammals made their way to and discover to the country which would be a turn for the worst in the case of the mower and the end to their endemic habitat as they knew it the exact year when New Zealand was first sighted will always remain open to debate and it is impossible to ascertain through archaeology due to there being no physical evidence navigators such as kupe and other greats navigators seldom contain dates but it is conceivable that's the great navigator or someone like him had found New Zealand around a thousand years ago the date of which the first settlements arrived in New Zealand formed when groups of people had arrived and booked permanent homes from themselves is much more clear the 13th century was a period of great events in human history with the largest and most powerful cultures on earth continuing to fight each other for the conquest of new lands such as Africa and the Far East along with the peak of the Middle Ages in Europe and the conquest of jenga scan and the Mongols all while this was taking place a small group of Eastern Polynesian sailors claimed the last major landmass that has yet to be discovered by people following the directions from earlier explorers hold tribes boarded enormous twin old sailing canoes or walker which were able to hold up to 100 people at a time set off into the vastness of the Southern Pacific navigating through the use of stars tides and natural rhythms of the ocean a feat that at the time that would have been beyond many other sailors on the planet eventually after weeks of traveling and planning the first peoples of the world set eyes on what would come to be known as Altair rower the land of the long white clouds this land was completely different from the tropical atoll was that they had left cold wet mountainous and at the same time rich in a forest and resources greeting the new colonists would have been a cacophony of birdsong echoing throughout the forests and coastlines from the rapid chirps of satyr buck the high pitch to Chiefs of the riflemen and the haunting cries of the Kakaako as well as the loud booms of a grief of beards they would soon come to rely on that's being of the MOA the first encounters with these large birds was likely one of fear as the largest birds these people would have seen it before this time that would have been chickens but this fear would soon be replaced by a feeling of opportunity and it was quickly realized too that Samoa were plentiful and would be a great source of food they were quickly and rapidly taken advantage of with Maori traditions indicating that MOA were caught in nooses and snares made out of wooden flax and while avoiding kicks from their powerful feet was be knocked to the ground and swiftly killed which once killed the parts of the mole would be utilized in many ways the bones skin and feathers undoubtedly proved an important industrial resource in addition to the immediate demands for Fu's the large leg bones were ideal for the manufacture of fish hooks chisels and all's and the feathers would have been made into spectacular cloaks although few remains are known whatever was not useful was thrown away and dumped into mittens essentially underground rubbish dumps where a great many molar remains have been found mower hunting was the prime source of food for the Maori and for a while there must have seemed to be in an inexhaustible supply of MOA but like all of the great animal resources discovered by humans their relentless exploitation would soon cause MOA populations to crash in a Polynesia bird populations which consisted of seabirds to large enough populations and fast breeding to ensure that spa patient's could recover quickly after each season but with MOA which were long-lived to an slow to breed each loss critically affected to the population of around 2.5 million has mature breeding females and their nutritious eggs would be the first to be targeted over the course of a century a so called ecological blitzkrieg took place across the country with up to 100,000 MOA being butchered in one camp alone making it easily the largest prehistoric killing site in the world the most commonly hunted species were the eastern MOA of the coastal plains and of the stout legs and heavy footed MOA of the inland hill country which could be thought of as the commercial species that were hunted in large numbers and were likely the first species to be entirely wiped out giant MOA were present in the same environments but were more elusive and rarer but even so they could not hide for long the much smaller upland and little bush MOA appear occasionally in high-altitude oven pits and would have been the last species to avoid the hunters with only the elusive crested MOA never been found in a middens within just a couple of generations MOA were extinct over much of New Zealand and it is fascinating to think that the hunting of these animals didn't take place in a distant and unknowable past but really quite recently compared to other notable extinctions the hunting of the MOA occurred at a time when the Ming Dynasty and Incan empires were thriving and Gutenberg had invented the printing press and by the time of their accepted extinction Michelangelo had begun work on his iconic sculptures of David and when Richard - the third reigned over England the last MOA of the once pristine land of New Zealand had been hunted largely into extinction in an unprecedented manner after their accepted extinction date of around to the beginning of the sixteenth century could there have been a birds that survived past this date four years after their extinction they had always been a desire that MOA may still exist in the dark forests of New Zealand and many sightings have been claimed over the years many of which being a ludicrous and hoaxes but some were most definitely credible ones and it calls into question whether a few birds may have managed to cling on there are many sightings that howl been considered credible from goldminers hearing odd sounds in the bush as well was spotting monstrous birds to a young girl by the name of Alice Mackenzie encountering and even touching a large bird on the west coast although not a single one has physical evidence of the birds and while intriguing cannot be entirely relied on in determining continued molar survival birds most definitely could have survived passed to the accepted extinction days of most lower populations as Fiordland a region 12,000 square kilometres in area is surrounded by peaks Glacia carve two valleys and some of the highest rainfall in the world many valleys and fjords have never been set foot on by hikers and hunters and it is extremely unlikely that any Polynesian settlers could have reached them either entire parties of people could be killed in these hazardous alpine crossings so if any mower did survive in these regions they would have had a little to worry from people a glimmer of hope for any surviving MOA came when tahe were rediscovered in the Murchison Mountains in 1948 surviving in a refuge free from predators that has yet to reach their mountainous habitats ultimately though if any mower did survive until this time in some mountainous region their potential for survival slammed shut when Moore introduced predators were brought to New Zealand after European arrival larger more aggressive Norwegian rats were introduced as well as cats rabbits pigs goats and the most vicious of them all that's being stoats after their introduction in the late 1800s they quickly spread throughout the country wiping out species after species eventually reaching the remotest corners of fiordland's and eliminating even cockapoo and pio pio out of resolution island and surrounding islands the chance of any surviving moer lasting into European times until the beginning of the 20th century was indeed possible despite the lack of physical evidence but with the introduction of more persistent and aggressive predators it meant that even in these regions the birds were doomed even the targa Hayes strongholds were beginning to be intruded and only survived today with heightened genetic diversity at the hands of conservationists whereas if any mower did survive they were likely too far gone and weren't able to be found in time to be saved the last MOA was likely not planned hidden away in a high altitude sanctuary in the Alps or Fiordland or even a crested MOA or little bush MOA scuttling around an unexplored corner of Fiordland whatever the species the eggs of the last mower if any breeding females were left would have been the first to go fragile and a massive targets for introduced predators it meant that if any more population remains any attempt at raising a next generation would be quickly snuffed out and after around 50 years the lifespan of most MOA the last bird would have wandered alone until it too died unnoticed and annamund despite their extinction it has been proposed that MOA are prime candidates for future cloning of extinct animals given their recent extinction and that are so many intact sequences of DNA exist MOA could very well make could very well make a return but it is unknown as to when or if ever this comes to pass and if it does come to pass it would bring back a vital part of New Zealand's endemic fauna even after their extinction their impacts on the world around them can still be seen particularly in the lance woods which has the most peculiar lifestyle compared to all other forest trees in New Zealand when a lance would first sprout its small narrow leaves are muscled and drab and not out of the ordinary but once they begin to grow taller they begin the first of their radical transformations in shape and color the leaves fall into a phalanx of meat along rigid leaves with Barb's surrounded the edges of the leaves when these trees reach three metres tall they change their shape and color once again resembling a more conventional forest tree many plant species have adapted to protect themselves against browsing and grazing animals and this was also the case in New Zealand where the Lance would in this case had to defend themselves against the MOA lacking the prehensile tongues of browsing mammals large herbivorous birds like MOA had to approach the leaves head on tearing leaves off and then swallowing the rigid daggers of the juvenile lance wood are therefore perfectly adapted to either poking out to the eye or sticking in the gizzard of a grazing MOA even displaying a possum attak coloration like wasps or venomous snakes to advertise the danger they possess the first known example of such a warning in any plant species all in all the story of the mower in recent history is a tragic one with over exploitation of being a central theme they were hunted killed and forgotten about until recently and it is only now that we can fully appreciate these birds from a cultural aspect when Europeans arrived in New Zealand and the birds were rediscovered they quickly became famous and was keen shaping New Zealand's formative years being a symbol to the much revered All Blacks and even being a featured in the official coat of arms still being so in Wellington much of the information gathered for this video was sourced by the fantastic book mower the life and death of New Zealand's legendary bird by Koyna Berenson a book that even I learned some new information on these remarkable birds and their history also going into depth on multiple sightings that I didn't have the time to cover in this video and with that I thank you for watching this installment of New Zealand bird of the week for next time you are now able to vote for the fluttering Shearwater a bird that flies in a unique way and with that I'll see you next time whenever that may be you

Channel: Henry the PaleoGuy

Views: 220,553

Keywords: Moa, Bird, Extinct, New Zealand, South Island giant moa, South Island, Fiordland, North Island giant moa, Stout-legged moa, Eastern moa, Crested moa, Mantell's moa, Heavy-footed moa, Little bush moa, Upland moa, Birds, Mollymawk, New Zealand Bird of the Week, Kakapo, Kiwi, Flightless, Native, Forest, Ben G Thomas, TREY the Explainer, Don Merton, Black robin, Endemic, Dinosaur, Dinosaurs, Prehistory, Rat, Stoat, Possum, Animal, Aotearoa, Wildlife, Paleontology, Evolution, Biology, Zoology, Science, Anatomy

Id: EJThqB1L68U

Length: 39min 6sec (2346 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 16 2020