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Maori Legend of Man-Eating Birds is True

Posted by samzenpus on from the beautiful-plumage dept.

jerryatrix writes "Legends of the New Zealand Maori tell of giant man-eating birds. New scientific evidence proves that these birds did exist and were around the same time as humans in New Zealand. From the article, 'Scientists now think the stories handed down by word of mouth and depicted in rock drawings refer to Haast's eagle, a raptor that became extinct just 500 years ago.'"

2 of 338 comments (clear)

  1. Re:so... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually there is no evidence that there was ever any land animals whatsoever in NZ except for lizards, insects and spiders. Unless you count flightless birds.

  2. Re:so... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You totally forgot New Zealand's only native land mammal, the bat. There's an amazing video of the native bat running, because it'd evolved to be flightless like the birds.

    But, the Haast Eagle was unconfirmed before this? I've been brought up and it's always been a fact to me.