My Blog - Jeff Clarke

All images © Jeff Clarke 2016 unless otherwise stated ‘The Land of Birds’ adrift from Gondwana for 65 million years was utterly unique. No land mammals, except for bats, were to be found on this micro-continent. As a result the birds that arrived to populate it were able to diversify into many forms and occupy many of the niches that the mammals would otherwise exploit. A number of species became flightless and some like the Moa became giants. Moa The above image is from New Zealand Birds Online a great resource for visiting birders. The Maori arrived from Polynesia sometime after 1250 and from that moment the extinction crisis began. In less than 100 years the Moa were exterminated, eaten by the Maori, though rumours p...