![\"Upland](\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/en\/thumb\/d\/d7\/Megalapteryx.png\/419px-Megalapteryx.png\")
Upland Moa, via Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Moa\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>were a family of large ancient flightless birds endemic to New Zealand. The two largest of the nine kinds found there were about 12 feet tall and weighed in at 500 pounds. They had small heads and were completely wingless, lacking even the stubby vestigial wings of\u00a0other flightless birds,;\u00a0they were the dominant herbivores in the area. For millions of years they flourished, then abruptly disappeared, around the time the first Maori settlers reached New Zealand in the late 13th century.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Via Wikipedia. Size comparison between 4 moa species and a human. 1. Dinornis novaezealandiae 2. Emeus crassus 3. Anomalopteryx didiformis 4. Dinornis robustus<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Moa were the last of the Pleistocene\u00a0megafauna-giant animals including mammoths, mastodons, aurochs, giant sloths and Moas-to disappear from the earth. There’s been a lot of discussion as to why these creatures disappeared, and how much it had to do with humans. In most cases, a combination of factors-the arrival of homo sapiens, climate disruptions, volcanic eruptions, and disease- probably led to the extinction of many of these animals, but the Moa\u2019s disappearance\u00a0were the exception, and\u00a0can definitively be tied to overhunting by humans.\u00a0Archaeologists know that the Maori ate Moa\u00a0of all ages, as well as the birds\u2019 eggs.\u00a0We like to think of indigenous people as living in harmony with nature; the Moa complicate that story.\u00a0The large birds offered sizable meals, and archaeologists have found\u00a0piles and piles of the birds\u2019\u00a0bones in excavated sites. When people arrived, we were the first mammals other than bats the birds had even seen. Researches\u00a0analyzed\u00a0DNA from discovered bird skeletons and came to the conclusion that the Moa population was booming right up until the\u00a0arrival\u00a0of the Maori, at\u00a0which\u00a0point they\u00a0disappeared\u00a0very fast. Most, if not all, were gone by 1400.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \n![\"size](\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/8\/87\/Dinornithidae_SIZE_01.png\/800px-Dinornithidae_SIZE_01.png\")
![\"moa\"](\"http:\/\/www.fieldguidetoextinctbirds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/moa1.jpg\")
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