Comments | wtf_nature: That's a big eagle

genmaicha in wtf_nature

That's a big eagle

Feb 08, 2008 15:14

Remember the Moa? Giant flightless bird about 13ft to the top of its head? Yeah, pretty big bird, and living on New Zealand, too, where there's not much in the way of native predators. Lots of crazy birds have evolved there, making use of the fact that New Zealand doesn't (natively) have canines or felines or mustelids or any other common mammalian ( Read more... )

eagle, new zealand, extinct, birds

Comments 35

zenedai February 9 2008, 00:09:12 UTC

GAH YOU BEATED ME DX

Haast's eagle ftw.

Also Argentavis.

BIG BURDS!

genmaicha February 9 2008, 00:20:08 UTC

I plan to do Argentavis too; I was gonna shove it into this one, but decided that since they're very different big birds, I'd divide it up. :)

venividibitchy February 9 2008, 00:14:30 UTC

Repost.

genmaicha February 9 2008, 00:22:47 UTC

Is it? I don't remember finding it when I did an archive binge a few days ago. There were other big extant eagles covered (Harpy and Philippine) and the linked-to post on Moa that mentioned the Haast's but didn't go into detail.

madeofmeat February 9 2008, 04:39:33 UTC

Agreed. Reference or it didn't happen.

venividibitchy February 9 2008, 22:50:06 UTC

I did the Moa post myself, then someone else reposted it poorly. The Haast's eagle was done shortly after mine - the same day, or shortly after. I can't be arsed to look, but you're free to.

Thread 5

sclerotic_rings February 9 2008, 00:19:25 UTC

As far as the possibility of Harpagornis hunting humans is concerned, the Maori had legends of heroes fighting giant winged demons in the mountains of South Island that may have been retellings of efforts to take out human-eating eagles. I'm intrigued by the possibility, but I have a bad feeling that human efforts to take out the eagles were so immediate and vicious that the eagles were gone within a few decades after the Maori population built to a level where they could do something about it. Archaeological evidence suggests that the moas lasted at least 400 years after the first human settlement (and one very contentious moa fossil has been interpreted as being butchered with steel knives, which suggests that at least a few moas survived to see James Cook's expedition reach the islands), but the eagles disappear very quickly after humans arrived. Were they affected by disturbances to their hunting, or were they actively taken out by humans who were sick and tired of being seen as deformed moas?

orwellian_trash February 9 2008, 00:20:51 UTC

( ... )

ladymalchav February 9 2008, 00:54:27 UTC

JESUS CHRIST, IT'S AN EAGLE! GET IN THE CAR!

laika_come_home February 9 2008, 03:03:58 UTC

I am LOLing for real right now. Good show!

ladymalchav February 9 2008, 03:50:29 UTC

( ... )

Thread 8

sclerotic_rings February 9 2008, 00:22:16 UTC

So...for a followup, are we going to get a writeup on the still-extant population of Pakeha? *ducks and runs like hell*