It Would Take 50 Million Years To Recover New Zealand’s Lost Bird Species

It took only a few hundred years for humans to wipe out 50 million years of evolution on New Zealand

A flightless kakapo, Strigops habroptilus, a critically endangered nocturnal parrot that is native to New Zealand. (Credit: Andrew Digby)

Long before people arrived in New Zealand, it was dominated by multitudes of unique birds. They were absolutely everywhere: big birds, little birds, colorful birds, flightless birds. In the absence of reptilian and mammalian predators, birds evolved to fill every available niche, from giant moas that stood 11 feet tall and weighed as much as 230 kilograms (510 pounds) that were the ecological equivalent of deer and antelopes, to the largest eagle that ever lived, which was New Zealand’s apex predator, functioning similarly to lions and tigers and other big cats.