Page 5 - 2008 NZ SUB ANTARCTIC ISLANDS - SMARTPHONE

the form of extinction of species millions of years in their development. 800 years after the
Maoris, the Europeans discovered New Zealand and more ruin was brought to the lovely land and
its vulnerable ecosystem.

Biologists, ecologists, historians all agree that of all land masses, New Zealand has suffered the
greatest number of extinctions due to human pressures. Because no mammalian predators had
evolved there, the birdlife was totally unprepared for the exotic (in this context, exotic means
“non-native”) animals humans brought with them or for the ravages of hunting that human beings
practiced. It is not really necessary to indict humanity for its early depredations because people’s
actions were based on ignorance and heedlessness rather than evil or selfishness. After all, both
the Maoris and the Europeans had never occupied such an unspoiled Eden before. They were
also unaware of the damage that exotic species can wreak on an isolated environment. They did
not recognize that the islands supported a limited population of creatures that could be shattered
so quickly. By the time extinctions were understood, tremendous damage had already occurred.

For a time after the collision between the Maoris and the Europeans, the natural world was not
studied or valued. The Europeans were busily “conquering” the new world and subduing the
indigenous human populations. The Maoris were desperately defending their homes and way of
life. No one noticed when the last moa was killed. In 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi between the
British and the Maoris finally ended the open conflict and assured more rights to the Maoris than
indigenous peoples usually received at the mercies of the British and other European explorers.
Then the European period of destroying New Zealand began in earnest as immigrants arrived in
greater numbers every year and the land was “tamed” and altered for agriculture and animal
husbandry as the Europeans knew it. Whalers and sealers exploited the marine life until it
became unprofitable due to the declining numbers of the creatures they sought. Cities grew up in
the formerly unoccupied lands driving out the native birds and plants. Huge sheep stations arose
in the plains and caused enormous change in the environment, destroying more plants and birds.

Most destructive however was the importation of non-native mammals and marsupials. The
Maoris had brought the “fat pig” with them as a food source. This pig was a rooting animal and
created considerable destruction of the ground nesting birds. Worse though were the animals
brought by Europeans: cats, dogs, stoats, and possums (from Australia), weasels, rabbits, rats and
mice. The assault on paradise was bloody and final for many species who had evolved with no
defenses against these deadly predators. In biology this is known as evolutionary naïveté. It is
estimated that over 50% of the bird species present at the beginning of the human colonization of
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New Zealand have become extinct, 2 only to the species loss in the Hawaiian Islands.

Evolution in New Zealand produced unique species, endemic to the country (meaning they exist
only there). 90% of the freshwater fish, 80% of vascular plants, 70% of terrestrial and freshwater
birds, all bats, all amphibians, and all reptiles fit into that category. This degree of endemism
makes the loss of species even more catastrophic. The slaughter of the flightless moas, largest of
any birds anywhere is a good example of what makes extinction so heartbreaking. The Maoris
hunted these birds to extinction, long before any European had ever seen them. As a matter of
fact, scientists today believe that the total destruction of the 10 species of moa was accomplished
in less than 100 years after the Maoris arrived. Because the Haast’s Eagle, largest eagle in the
world, was completely dependent on moas for food, it too went extinct at the same time. Moas
were huge birds, the largest stood 12 feet high and weighed in excess of 550 lbs. The eagle could
attack at 50 mph which facilitated its hunting of the huge moas. Besides these very large birds,
many smaller species were also pushed to extermination by the exotic predators. The national
emblem of New Zealand is the strange kiwi bird, a flightless creature whose feathers look more
like fur and whose nostrils are at the end of its beak, the sole bird in the world with that

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