Maori myth of giant eagle confirmed

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26076163-23109,00.html

Haast eagle was 'ultimate killing machine'

IT might not have killer crocs but New Zealand was once home to an even more fearsome creature that could rip apart humans with its claws.
New research has confirmed that a giant man-eating bird long spoken of in legends actually existed.

And the Haast eagle was even bigger and more deadly than first thought, fulfilling the same role as the killer lions of Africa.

Each creature had a wingspan of three metres and weighed almost 20kg, making more than twice the size of the largest eagle that survives today.

"It was certainly capable of swooping down and taking a child," Paul Scofield, of Canterbury University in New Zealand, said.

Its talons were as big as a tiger's claws, making it the ultimate "killing machine", he said.

"They had the ability to not only strike with their talons but to close the talons and put them through quite solid objects such as a pelvis."

Until now, the eagle has been nothing more than a legendary bird called a Te Hokioi by Maori.

The first known account of this mystical bird was given to 19th Century New Zealand governor Sir George Grey, who described it as a huge black-and-white predator with a red crest and yellow-green tinged wingtips.

Pictures of the giant creature could be found all through early Maori rock drawings but they were presumed imaginary.

Remains of the Haast eagle had been collected in the 1870s but early examinations found it was a scavenger like a vulture.

However, new tests of the skeletons using modern technology, including CAT scans, have revealed the eagle and legendary Te Hokioi are one and the same.

The research, published in The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, concluded the bird is the Kiwi equivalent of the great African lion.

It survived on a diet of moa, another giant but flightless bird and became extinct just 500 years ago, after humans killed off

I did some google image searching for it

Silhouette size comparison

That's pretty big!
HiHo Cryptozoology!

Very interesting, the "myth" was real. And, pretty scary, but... "ultimate killing machine"? Really, a 45 pound eagle - more fearsome and deadly than a shark, a tiger, an angry bull elephant... or a Maori warrior? A bit loose with our superlatives, aren't we? Armed with only a stick, I'd rather try to defend myself from this eagle, than dozens of other animals I can quickly think of. That said, it must have been terrifying to know a bird could suddenly, "out of the blue", strike and carry off your small child, with no hope of your running to the rescue.
How about, "Of all birds encountered by humans, the Haast eagle was the ultimate bird of prey"?

"The rum's the thing..."

[ Edited by: Limbo Lizard 2009-09-15 08:57 ]

They had very large talons.

Cool stuff! Limbo, their chief prey was the 9 foot tall, 500 lb moa bird. It's not so much the 45 lbs, it's the 45 lbs dropping unexpectedly out the sky and hitting you at 80 mph with razor sharp talons. Still, I think I'd rather take my chances with a 45 lb eagle rather than a 500 lb tiger :)

On 2009-09-15 12:55, MadDogMike wrote:
"Limbo, their chief prey was the 9 foot tall, 500 lb moa bird... "

Could be wrong, but I suspect their chief prey was more like the 2 or 3 foot tall, 20 to 40 lb. baby moa bird. Raptors seem to want prey they can carry away to somewhere safe, rather than be vulnerable on the ground, competing with, say, a pack of wild dogs for the food it just killed. I don't know what other animals there are (or were) in N.Z. at the time, though. Maybe it didn't have anything to compete with, if it just sat there, picking pieces out of a several hundred pound moa.

Yep, there were no other carnivores or scavengers, they say the eagles would "monopolize" on a dead moa for days - mmmm, tasty!

I guess they got to enjoy the best of both worlds - eagle and buzzard.

For comparison sake. One of these eagles attacking a Moa

And people attacking a moa

No wonder the Moa is extinct! :lol:

Apart from various small lizards, frogs, bugs and the Polynesian rat + dog (post settlement) all the upper levels of the food chain were occupied by birds. No wonder everything went extinct so quickly.
I was pleased to see this was the #1 story on the NZ Herald website this morning, it shows the power of a good headline...
NZ Herald: "Maori legend of man-eating bird is true"
Stuff.co.nz: "Giant eagle ruled New Zealand skies"