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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.'"

35 of 338 comments (clear)

  1. so... by brainstem · · Score: 5, Funny

    So it wasn't the dingo, after all.

    1. Re:so... by MichaelSmith · · Score: 5, Informative

      So it wasn't the dingo, after all.

      No dingos in NZ.

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    2. Re:so... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Of course not! Not any more -- did you see the size of those Dingo eating birds?

    3. 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.

    4. 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.

    5. Re:so... by flibbajobber · · Score: 4, Informative

      The actual news here is that they co-existed with the Maori - it was previously thought they had died out before the Maori arrived. The existence of the Haast's Eagle was well known and there exist Moa bones with massive gouges from being attacked by these Eagles.

    6. Re:so... by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Informative

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

            However unlike Australia, not all of them are poisonous and potentially fatal to humans...

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    7. Re:so... by w0mprat · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

      The native bat is not flightless. It does a funny scamper thing along the ground but this does not make it flightless.

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

      Haasts Eagle bones were identified in 1870 by Julius Von Haast. This thing preyed on the Moa, a 12-foot tall 500lb flightless bird. There is no question that a human would have been a much easier much more defenseless snack than a Moa. It would be unlikely that they didn't eat the occasional human.

      When the first polynesian settlers showed up they would have climbed out of their Waka http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/waka-canoes and on to the lunch menu.

      --
      After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
    8. Re:so... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      So, aside from the sheep-eating lizards, poisonous insects, deadly spiders, and territorial (and vicious) birds... you'd be perfectly safe.

      Deadly spiders? New Zealand has no snakes and only one species of poisonous spider (the Katipo) that's rare, endangered, and found only on coastlands (eg. not inland). The next worse thing (probably a whitetail spider) merely makes you nauseous, and is not deadly.

      Because of the tectonic plate movement New Zealand drifted off before animals and before evolution favoured overtly vicious creatures, let alone poisonous creatures.

      New Zealand was a land full of birds before humans arrived in about 1000 AD, bringing rats and other animals.

    9. Re:so... by Daimanta · · Score: 4, Funny

      "The actual news here is that they co-existed with the Maori"

      If by co-exist you mean EAT THEM, then yes, there was a lot of co-existence.

      --
      Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
    10. Re:so... by SlashWombat · · Score: 4, Funny

      Deadly spiders? New Zealand has no snakes and only one species of poisonous spider

      That's because the Maori's ate them all. Seriously, the bloody Maori's are the only native race to ever get a treaty from the vicious pommy bastard tribe!

    11. Re:so... by gkai · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

      Haasts Eagle bones were identified in 1870 by Julius Von Haast. This thing preyed on the Moa, a 12-foot tall 500lb flightless bird. There is no question that a human would have been a much easier much more defenseless snack than a Moa. It would be unlikely that they didn't eat the occasional human.

      A human much easier meal than a moa? The first humans before they knew about Haast eagle maybe, then the occasional child or woman, and then it was over for the easy meals, more likely encounter was full grown Maori males looking for a vengence and the high status of coming back in the tribe with Haast eagle beak, talons and feathers...

      Imho it was the occasional human meal was what caused the extinction of Haast eagle, probably more than overhunting of the Moas: No easy meal after the first few unaware victims, and systematic destruction of nests, youngs and preying adults afterwards...just like all other predators meeting the homo sapiens and having the bad idea (well, more the natural idea not yet eradicated by darwinian evolution) of thinking "this naked monkey looks like easy meal".

      And not only eat the good old homo sapiens, but also eating any of his food stock would turn a bad idea for long term survival: RIP wolves, american lions, lynx, ...: a top predator sharing territory with a sufficiently dense human population is doomed.

    12. Re:so... by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Funny

      ..: a top predator sharing territory with a sufficiently dense human population is doomed.

      What have Texans got to do with it?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    13. Re:so... by EatHam · · Score: 4, Funny

      Thanks for ruining the joke, Captain Pedantic.

  2. New Zealand fauna by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I lived in New Zealand for awhile and it's shocking the number of flightless birds that died out. The final death blow to some species was the introduction of rats. They ate the eggs of birds and wiped out many species of Weta Bugs. New Zealand missed out on the mega Fauna extinction their's happened in the last 2,000 years instead of 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. Modern science just missed out on a lot of species. Hard to believe how different the world was 20,000 years ago, 500 years ago was nothing. It was only a few lifetimes before Europeans set foot in New Zealand.

  3. And now you know why LOTR was made in New Zealand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The eagles are coming! The eagles are coming!

    And you thought that was CG!

  4. In Tune... by Das+Auge · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The primary reason that they went extinct was due to a loss of food. The Maori hunted all of the moa species of bird (large and flightless) to extinction. Another prime example of natives living "in tune" with nature...

    1. Re:In Tune... by Samgilljoy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think you may have missed the sarcastic subtext of the original post. There's a recurrent myth in the modern world, especially in technologically developed societies, that "natives" or "primitive man" or whatever somehow lived and still live "in tune" with nature or in harmony with it or whatever. They all supposedly respect the land in a way we don't, are inherently wise, spiritual, blah, blah, blah.

      You are, of course, correct in pointing out that hunting species to extinction is a very natural thing to do, though it depends on how you define things. The original poster was poking fun at the myths using the terms as propagators of the myth would themselves define them. Arguing what's natural and what's not is a different issue.

      More often than not, past and "primitive" societies would have exploited or would exploit nature as thoroughly as we do, anyway, were it not for limitations of populations and technology.

    2. Re:In Tune... by aussie_a · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Are any of us native to anywhere except Africa?

    3. Re:In Tune... by Dunbal · · Score: 5, Insightful

      past and "primitive" societies would have exploited or would exploit nature as thoroughly as we do, anyway, were it not for limitations of populations and technology.

            Dead on. The only reason the buffalo was still around in huge quantities was because native americans didn't have rifles, or horses for that matter.

      Native cultures were famous for "slash and burn" agriculture, possibly the most destructive farming method around that leeches all the nitrates out of the soil in just a few years, forcing the farmer to keep moving (and destroying his surrounding jungle). Crop rotation was a European invention.

            One mustn't let guilty feelings about the de facto destruction of native cultures by European civilization lead us into believing that somehow these people were much better than us. They were just people. Some were good. Some were bad. Every one of them left an environmental mark on the world around them.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    4. Re:In Tune... by Runaway1956 · · Score: 5, Informative

      *cough cough*

      The buffalo wasn't finished off because the white invaders ate them up. The Army wanted the herds destroyed, with the goal of depriving natives of food. Around the same time, the railroads promoted trophy hunting, because the herds were a threat to the trains.

      The near extinction of the buffalo would be less shameful if they had been hunted for food. Millions of buffalo were slaughtered, just to rot in the sun.

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    5. Re:In Tune... by chrb · · Score: 4, Informative

      Every one of them left an environmental mark on the world around them.

      Yes, but the environmental mark was, on average, a lot smaller than modern living. The Australian Aborigines had a way of life that was essentially unchanged for tens of thousands of years. The lifestyle consisted of finding water sources, hunting for food, and collecting wild growing berries and fruits from the land (not farming). Everything that they constructed was made from wood and other natural, biodegradable materials, from completely renewable and sustainable sources. Without intervention, they would probably have continued their lifestyle for tens of thousands of more years. Modern living is not sustainable - we are facing Peak Oil in the next few decades, we have an estimated 20 years or so of coltan supplies left, and we are using up many other limited resources relatively quickly. Our current lifestyle is based on consumption of resources that we can't replace. The Aborigine way of life would still be viable in 200 years, our Western way of life may well not be (people will do their best to adapt, but that adaptation may involve going back to a lifestyle of 200 years ago, with a strong focus on manual agriculture and labour).

      Native cultures were famous for "slash and burn" agriculture

      Many (most?) native cultures did not practice farming, instead living off wildly growing foods and hunting. Some Aborigines practiced "fire farming" in the last 5,000 years (after 40,000 of not farming in any sense of the word). Researchers suggest that this was sustainable "Aboriginal people's use of fire involved developing a self-sustaining mosaic of burnt and unburnt areas that reduced the damaging effects of fire". The fact that it was a stable way of life for 5,000 years suggests that it was more sustainable than the current fossil fuel based lifestyle.

  5. Re:Glad these things are gone by Mr.+Roadkill · · Score: 5, Funny

    Some species of Terror Bird would chase down their prey and literally peck it to death. They had an interesting feature about these things on Discovery last night; with this story it just seemed appropriate to mention it.

    Polly wants a cracker. NOW. And a couple of llamas. And a six pack of assorted primates, starting with you.

  6. Cool, but can we clone it? by Plazmid · · Score: 4, Funny

    It became extinct fairly recently, why don't we clone it? Surely these things will make a great addition to the New Zealand Air Defense Force.

  7. Re:NZ pacifist warrior culture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    New Zealand has two military intelligence bases, Waihopi and the other I forget the name of, both of which are apart of the ECHELON Network. New Zealand 'Peace Keepers' are situated in Timor Leste, were involved in Bougainvillea (both small Pacific islands) and are in various other Pacific nations right now. New Zealand followed ' lead into South Africa in the Boer Wars, even conquered German Samoa at the start of World War One (we literally had a Prime Minister with an Imperialist vision for New Zealand at one point), went to Africa and and Europe during WWI (the famous words about Britain 'Where she goes, we go') and by a quirk of our time zones, New Zealand was the first to declare war on Germany. We fought in Europe again during WWII, and we protected the Pacific from the Japanese threat. In the fifties, we sent the K-Force into Korea, and troops got involved in the Malay Conflict (as 'military advisor's' of course). I have a second-cousin once removed that was killed fighting in Vietnam in the NZ Contingent, though our force over there was a token. And up until 2006 the S.A.S. were in Afghanistan, and rumoured to have done over the border trips into Iraq. They've just been given the go ahead for redeployment.

    In short, do your research man.

  8. Re:Still unanswered... by mindbrane · · Score: 4, Funny
    No lasers back then boy, then there was just good and evil. Real evil, the kind you could sell your soul to. God, demi gods, spirits, sprites, ghouls, and, of course, Old Nick himself. But, then came the great Schism.

    It started with just the most basic machines, toys really. They're were inspired by God because He'd taken it into His thought about His thought thinking about His thought that since He'd created the place, He was best seen as the Designer, an Intelligent Designer. The Devil argued God hadn't really designed anything at all, had just set things out then let things "Go to Hell", as the Devil put it. But God went on about Intelligent Design and how Man, in His image, should be an Intelligent Designer too. That's when it all started about the machines. The Devil can't stand infernal machines. It's his hearing, it's too acute. He has to be that way to hear even the slightest hint of malicious intent. He finally had enough and headed out with all the lesser spirits in attendance. The lesser spirits were spooked by the machines, called them unnatural.

    I was probably the last one to get a good deal on my soul. Soon after I cut my deal, the Devil just didn't make any more offers. His heart just wasn't in it anymore.

    God likes the way things have gone. His creations creating. Turning out machines intelligently designed, or nearly so. We haven't spoken in a while, but, when last we spoke He was big on the idea of the entire world as a giant Dyson sphere. I miss the old days when evil had some value.

    Regards

    A. Faustus

    it's past my bedtime, i'm over tired and am probably gonna be sorry i posted this, but what the hell.

    --
    ideopath @ play
  9. Yup.. by refactored · · Score: 5, Funny
    AC said.. Last I checked we only had man eating birds, and the odd man eating Maori.

    Yup,...it'd be a pretty Odd man that eats a Maori. Pretty tough buggers those. :-) A bit of a step up from Pit Bull I tell you!

    1. Re:Yup.. by rve · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yup,...it'd be a pretty Odd man that eats a Maori. Pretty tough buggers those.

      Tough? You're probably cooking them too fast. Have you tried preparing one sous-vide ?

  10. Re:Okay. . . by aussie_a · · Score: 4, Funny

    Pffft. We don't want New Zealand! Tasmanians are bad enough with all their in-breeding. If we allow the New Zealanders in we'll forever be associated with beastiality as well!

  11. Video link by Valdrax · · Score: 5, Informative

    There's an amazing video of the native bat running, because it'd evolved to be flightless like the birds.

    Video
    Shame on you for talking up something so cool and not providing a link.

    --
    If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
  12. Re:Still unanswered... by Thanshin · · Score: 5, Funny

    "After an unprecedented archeological effort, the last page of the original bible has finally been found. It contains just one sentence."

    it's past my bedtime, i'm over tired and am probably gonna be sorry i posted this, but what the hell.

  13. Re:NZ pacifist warrior culture by CmdrGravy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I think, from what I've read somewhere, that another reason the Maoris didn't come off as badly as some of the other indigenous people the British came across is that they were excellent fighters. Since they did spend most of their spare time fighting each other they had had a lot of practice when it came to fighting the British.

    Despite the fact the colonists had naval guns and firearms the Maoris were able to devise tactics which completely negated the advantage they would have otherwise provided and dealt out a couple of fairly comprehensive beatings to the colonists so much so that during WWI the British actually recruited Maori elders to advise them how to conduct effective trench warfare.

  14. In Australia too! by clickety6 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Australia also has plenty of man-eating birds only there they call them Sheilas...

    --
    ----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
  15. Re:Kind of a shame... by Clever7Devil · · Score: 4, Funny

    It would be cool if it was alive today...

    Yeah... That would roc!!

    --
    "By the time they had diminished from 50 to 8, the other dwarves began to suspect 'Hungry.'" -Gary Larson
  16. Re:no evidence of land animals? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Please refrain from using 'fuck' and 'sheep' in the same sentence when discussing NZ.