This is so sad and depressing :( On the Coromandel peninsula, they were hunted into extinction within only 5 years. They posed no danger to humans at all, and because they had no natural enemies, they didn't even show and fight or flight behavior. Poor, innocent creatures :(

I'm a New Zealander and a bird lover, and my biggest regret in life is that I'll never get to see a Moa in person.

I love New Zealand birds. Wish the Moa's were still around.

List of moa species by weigh

Imagine being in that forest all them years back. Air would have been next level fresh.

imagine being a bird that was around for thousands if not millions of years just to get hunted to extinction by early humans

Video Idea: Tasmanian Tiger - Tasmania’s Apex Predator - What Was Lost Ep. 16

Another hit!!

We thought there was only island dwarfism but here is the moa

Such a fascinating animal, I love them! Great video! :)

Ah New Zealand, land of the avian dinosaurs.

Very sad that these majestic birds don’t exist anymore 😢…..

As a masochistic guilty pleasure, I like to think it's remotely possible that a small niche of them are still around, as Moa-sized footprints in a remote region of Fiordland once suggested. If they do still exist, it's likely because they haven't encountered introduced mammals to the island yet, and because the Haast Eagle is no longer a looming threat.

Polynesians will never be forgiven for depriving the world of giant eagles

Magalania good idea for new video

I've been waiting for this one!

He’s da biggest bird 🦆🦆🦅🦅

Moa, in other Polynesian languages translates to Chicken. I believe Māori brought chickens to New Zealand but once they saw the huge easily caught birds, What use would a little chicken be? In fact chicken bones have been found in old coastal fire pits near the arrival places of the recently migrated Polynesians who would go to intermarry with the local people, Maruiwi, Moriori, Te Hapu Oneone, Te Kāhui Rere etc giving birth to a unique culture quite seperate to that which we left behind in our Eastern Polynesian homeland. It was the overeating and extinction of Moa that led Māori to start the tradition of enacting rāhui or absolute restriction on certain food sources for a season or seasons at a time, to enable the mahinga kai (Place of food gathering) to replenish. On a somewhat unrelated note, the Te Arawa Waka was off the coast off the North Island and the passengers were wearing their red plumes or the big red feather headdresses you see Tahitian and Cook Island people wearing. They thought they saw hundreds of red birds fluttering around the trees on the shore and in their excitement threw their plumes overboard excited to wear the fresh red feathers of their new land. Upon reaching the shore at Maketū, they began to cry. They hadn't seen red feathered birds, but it was the wind blowing the branches of the Pohutukawa making the brittle flowers appear like birds busily flying and nesting about the coastal trees. One thing this tells us is that Te Arawa must have arrived in either late spring or summertime for the Pohutukawa to be in bloom.

A picture at the beginning was giving me Skeksis vibes rofl

Why do humans have to make these majestic creatures extinct