HOME | DD

Description
During the 13th Century on a grassland of South Island, New Zealand, a large flightless bird known as the eastern moa (Emeus crassus) roams across the plains with its multiple chicks following it closely as they forage on the plants here while a pair of a male and female New Zealand quail (Coturnix novaezelandiae) fly past. Despite being carefully guarded by their parent, not every chick would survive to adulthood. New Zealand has almost no native land mammals and few predators large enough to take on even young moas, but there are a few predatory birds able to bring down the chicks. The eastern moa parent is surprised to see that one of its chicks was suddenly ambushed by a predatory flightless bird known as the South Island adzebill (Aptornis defossor) that was stalking them among the grass, and the adzebill runs off with a moa chick in its beak. Unfortunately that chick could not be saved by its parent, and one member of the clutch is lost, though the many young increase the odds that some will survive into adulthood.

One last drawing for Island Fauna Week (youtu.be/PPpzBF8ajTI ). The country of New Zealand lies in the south Pacific Ocean and is made up of two main islands (North and South Island) and many smler islands surrounding them. The isolation of the islands meant that New Zealand has almost no native land mammals and has been that way for millions of years, and its fauna is dominated mainly by birds, many larger than their mainland relatives and evolved to be flightless since a lack of mammalian predators gave them less need to fly. Unfortunately this flightlessness didn't do them much good when humans arrived to New Zealand and hunted them as well as bring introduced species like rats, cats and stats that also preyed upon them, causing many of NZ's endemic fauna to go extinct.

Among the most famous of extinct New Zealand animals are the Dinornithiformes, an order of large flightless birds commonly called the moas that lived only in New Zealand. The moas were ratites, related to ostriches, emus and kiwis, and were similarly flightless. The most famous species is the South Island giant moa (Dinornis robustus), which gained its fame from being the tallest bird to have ever lived and reaching up to 3.6 meters in height. However, what seems less well-known is that at least 9 species of moa lived into the Holocene and could have encountered human settlers, the majority being only around half that size (but that's still quite big as far as birds go). One of these smaller moas is Emeus crassus, commonly called the eastern moa, which stood around 1.5 meters tall and the females were slightly larger than the males. The Eastern moa was endemic to South Island and lived in a variety of habitats there from forests to grasslands, feeding on plants. While European settlers did not encounter this species, it would have exited long enough to meet Polynesian settlers which likely hunted it to extinction along with the other moa species. Some amazingly well-preserved remains of the eastern moa are known that even come with mummified soft tissue, and shows that the animal mostly had hair-like feathers but a bare face (here I gave the adult blue facial skin like an emu or cassowary). Juveniles of the species aren't known and its reproductive habits are unclear, but I chose to portray it having large clutches of eggs and chicks like most ratites, and gave the chicks mottled plumage for camouflage that differs from adult plumage (a feature seen in many ratites). Also the chicks don't have bare faces in my reconstruction, since cassowaries and emus are also born like this and shed their facial feathers as they grow.

With a lack of mammals, the predator roles of New Zealand ecosystems were taken up by mainly birds. The most famous of these is the Haast's eagle, a huge eagle that hunted mainly smaller moa species but was also able to bring down full-grown giant moas. Much less commonly known is Aptornis, a genus of flightless predatory birds commonly called the adzebills. Two species are known to have lived into the Holocene, one on North and South Island respectively. The South Island species was slightly larger, standing around a meter tall, and with their large size their subfossil remains were once mistaken to be the bones of small moas. Adzebills show a variety of odd features, like extremely small wings proportionate to their body size and a large beak that curved downwards. Classification of the adzebill has also been confusing, though it is generally placed in the order Gruiformes along with cranes and rails. Analysis of carbon and nitrogen levels in their remains suggests adzebills were predatory, and probably fed on large insects, lizards, tuataras and other birds, essentially being a terrestrial mesopredator of New Zealand, while also possibly being preyed on itself by the Haast's eagle. Given its size I think a South Island adzebill would be capable of taking on the chicks of smaller moas. The adzebills died out around the 13th or 14th century and were never seen alive by Europeans, but could have come across Polynesian settlers and the Polynesian rats they unintentionally brought with them, both of which likely contributed to their extinction.

While the moa and adzebill both died out before European settlers arrived, the New Zealand quail (also called the koreke) existed up until 1875 and did come across Europeans, which hunted the quail and modified its habitat, causing its extinction. Closely related to the stubble quail of Australia, they two have been suggested to be two populations of the same species, but genetic studies suggests they are indeed seperate. The quail showed sexual dimorphism, with the males having some reddish-brown face feathers while the female is more dull-colored. Once common throughout the grasslands of both North and South Island, it was the only member of the Phasianidae family (which includes Old World quails, pheasants and chickens) to be native to New Zealand, though today the related brown quail has been introduced here.

Description
During the 13th Century on a grassland of South Island, New Zealand, a large flightless bird known as the eastern moa (Emeus crassus) roams across the plains with its multiple chicks following it closely as they forage on the plants here while a pair of a male and female New Zealand quail (Coturnix novaezelandiae) fly past. Despite being carefully guarded by their parent, not every chick would survive to adulthood. New Zealand has almost no native land mammals and few predators large enough to take on even young moas, but there are a few predatory birds able to bring down the chicks. The eastern moa parent is surprised to see that one of its chicks was suddenly ambushed by a predatory flightless bird known as the South Island adzebill (Aptornis defossor) that was stalking them among the grass, and the adzebill runs off with a moa chick in its beak. Unfortunately that chick could not be saved by its parent, and one member of the clutch is lost, though the many young increase the odds that some will survive into adulthood.

One last drawing for Island Fauna Week (youtu.be/PPpzBF8ajTI ). The country of New Zealand lies in the south Pacific Ocean and is made up of two main islands (North and South Island) and many smler islands surrounding them. The isolation of the islands meant that New Zealand has almost no native land mammals and has been that way for millions of years, and its fauna is dominated mainly by birds, many larger than their mainland relatives and evolved to be flightless since a lack of mammalian predators gave them less need to fly. Unfortunately this flightlessness didn't do them much good when humans arrived to New Zealand and hunted them as well as bring introduced species like rats, cats and stats that also preyed upon them, causing many of NZ's endemic fauna to go extinct.

Among the most famous of extinct New Zealand animals are the Dinornithiformes, an order of large flightless birds commonly called the moas that lived only in New Zealand. The moas were ratites, related to ostriches, emus and kiwis, and were similarly flightless. The most famous species is the South Island giant moa (Dinornis robustus), which gained its fame from being the tallest bird to have ever lived and reaching up to 3.6 meters in height. However, what seems less well-known is that at least 9 species of moa lived into the Holocene and could have encountered human settlers, the majority being only around half that size (but that's still quite big as far as birds go). One of these smaller moas is Emeus crassus, commonly called the eastern moa, which stood around 1.5 meters tall and the females were slightly larger than the males. The Eastern moa was endemic to South Island and lived in a variety of habitats there from forests to grasslands, feeding on plants. While European settlers did not encounter this species, it would have exited long enough to meet Polynesian settlers which likely hunted it to extinction along with the other moa species. Some amazingly well-preserved remains of the eastern moa are known that even come with mummified soft tissue, and shows that the animal mostly had hair-like feathers but a bare face (here I gave the adult blue facial skin like an emu or cassowary). Juveniles of the species aren't known and its reproductive habits are unclear, but I chose to portray it having large clutches of eggs and chicks like most ratites, and gave the chicks mottled plumage for camouflage that differs from adult plumage (a feature seen in many ratites). Also the chicks don't have bare faces in my reconstruction, since cassowaries and emus are also born like this and shed their facial feathers as they grow.

With a lack of mammals, the predator roles of New Zealand ecosystems were taken up by mainly birds. The most famous of these is the Haast's eagle, a huge eagle that hunted mainly smaller moa species but was also able to bring down full-grown giant moas. Much less commonly known is Aptornis, a genus of flightless predatory birds commonly called the adzebills. Two species are known to have lived into the Holocene, one on North and South Island respectively. The South Island species was slightly larger, standing around a meter tall, and with their large size their subfossil remains were once mistaken to be the bones of small moas. Adzebills show a variety of odd features, like extremely small wings proportionate to their body size and a large beak that curved downwards. Classification of the adzebill has also been confusing, though it is generally placed in the order Gruiformes along with cranes and rails. Analysis of carbon and nitrogen levels in their remains suggests adzebills were predatory, and probably fed on large insects, lizards, tuataras and other birds, essentially being a terrestrial mesopredator of New Zealand, while also possibly being preyed on itself by the Haast's eagle. Given its size I think a South Island adzebill would be capable of taking on the chicks of smaller moas. The adzebills died out around the 13th or 14th century and were never seen alive by Europeans, but could have come across Polynesian settlers and the Polynesian rats they unintentionally brought with them, both of which likely contributed to their extinction.

While the moa and adzebill both died out before European settlers arrived, the New Zealand quail (also called the koreke) existed up until 1875 and did come across Europeans, which hunted the quail and modified its habitat, causing its extinction. Closely related to the stubble quail of Australia, they two have been suggested to be two populations of the same species, but genetic studies suggests they are indeed seperate. The quail showed sexual dimorphism, with the males having some reddish-brown face feathers while the female is more dull-colored. Once common throughout the grasslands of both North and South Island, it was the only member of the Phasianidae family (which includes Old World quails, pheasants and chickens) to be native to New Zealand, though today the related brown quail has been introduced here.