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“When
the Weka Rail separated from Australia roughly sixty million
years ago, New Zealand was devoid of land mammals, a fact that
permitted numerous flightless birds to evolve. Man’s arrival
along with cats, dogs, pigs and other domesticated predators,
thus did more damage here than almost anywhere else on earth.
The renowned kiwi is the only survivor from the moa family of
grazing birds. On the two big islands, except for the kiwi, flightless
birds have all but disappeared. But a number remain on Stewart
Island, including tiny populations of kakapo, an almost flightless
owl parrot, and of the flightless weka rail.” As seen in
the 1989 Naturalist’s Diary. |
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