{"id":27353,"date":"2025-02-11T10:53:49","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T02:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/?post_type=media-release&#038;p=27353"},"modified":"2025-02-13T09:01:13","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T01:01:13","slug":"human-settlement-key-to-extinction-of-new-zealands-iconic-moa-bird","status":"publish","type":"media-release","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/human-settlement-key-to-extinction-of-new-zealands-iconic-moa-bird\/","title":{"rendered":"Human settlement key to extinction of New Zealand&#8217;s iconic Moa bird"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>New research has identified the extent to which human colonisation and hunting contributed to the extinction of New Zealand\u2019s giant flightless birds, the moa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Published in <em>Science of the Total Environment<\/em>, the research team used fossils and detailed computer modelling to reconstruct how six species of moa disappeared and whether their extinctions were avoidable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Human settlement key to extinction of New Zealand\u2019s iconic Moa bird\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MebbdF5zO3U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Lead researcher Dr Sean Tomlinson, from Curtin\u2019s School of Molecular and Life Sciences, who completed this research while at the University of Adelaide, said the research shows that extinctions of moawere caused by frequent harvesting of birds and their eggs by people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cArrival of people in New Zealand more than 600 years ago caused one of the largest and most rapid losses of native species across the Pacific. The iconicmoa were giant, flightless birds that disappeared within 100 to 300 years after human arrival,\u201d Dr Tomlinson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cUsing information from fossils and high-performance computing, we show that these extinctions were likely to have been an unavoidable consequence of human colonisation of New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur modelling suggests that the only way moa could have co-existed with humans is if large \u201cno-take\u201d harvest zones had covered more than 50 per cent of New Zealand\u2019s land area. This would have been extremely difficult to implement given the social structures of Polynesian colonists, and their reliance on wild food sources, particularly in southern New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Co-author Associate Professor Damien Fordham, from the University of Adelaide\u2019s Environment Institute, said that although it\u2019s too late for moa, these insights provide valuable lessons to conserve and protect today\u2019s endangered large bodied species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur findings suggest that today\u2019s large, flightless birds, such as Kiwi and Cassowary, probably require much bigger conservation areas that include pristine habitats that are least impacted by humanity,\u201d Dr Fordham said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis new research shows that extinct species can offer crucial insights to help guide conservation efforts for New Zealand\u2019s remaining flightless birds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The paper titled, <em>\u201cWas extinction of New Zealand\u2019s avian megafauna an unavoidable consequence of human arrival?\u201d <\/em>can be found online <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0048969725001056\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was co-authored by researchers from the University of Adelaide, State University of New York, Australian National University, University of Auckland, and Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New research has identified the extent to which human colonisation and hunting contributed to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4001,"featured_media":27355,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-27353","media-release","type-media-release","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"","qualification":"","link":"","description":"","faculty":""}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":[24387,24381]},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}},"experts":false},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/MA_I043760_TePapa_Crested-Moa-Pachyornis_fullresized-1000x500.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Lauren","last_name":"Glaskin","display_name":"Lauren Sydoruk"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/27353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/media-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/27353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27353"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=27353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}