Happy New Zealand Day!
The Haast's Eagle, the largest bird of prey (until extinction) attacking a flightless moa (also extinct)
The islands that make up what today is known as New Zealand were, for centuries, uninhabited by people. Due to its isolation, the island hosted many distinct creatures and was dominated by large birds. There were no land mammals, only bats and the marine variety on the coast.
a Maori warrior a group of Moriori
Austronesians came from Polynesia between 800 and 1300 A.D, making New Zealand one of the last major land masses to be settled by people. These people organized into groups called hapu. Over time, they came to refer to themselves collectively as Māori. They called the North Island Te Ika a Māui (the fish of Māui) and the South Island Te Wai Pounamu (the waters of jade) or Te Waka a Māui (the canoe of Māui). Around 1500, a group split off and migrated to Rekohu and developed a culture known as Moriori who embraced Pacifism which served them poorly when they were massacred and cannibalized by the Maori in the 1830s. The remaining Moriori, who'd adapted to the harsh climate of Rekohu, died out completely in the early 20th century.
