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In response to
"Do they not have wings? Can they not fly? -- nm"
by
IrishStephen
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Lots of flightless birds in NZ, including the world's only flightless parrot, the kakapo.
Posted by
Roger More (aka rogermore)
Aug 30 '18, 13:31
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But they just weren't used to being predated, and didn't have defence mechanisms built into their behaviour - eg they would feed on the ground, they were comfortable with other animals nearby, they wouldn't hide their nests etc.
There was a large flightless bird called the moa which was like an emu, except 3 metres tall, and basically when the Maori arrived they would that it wasn't afraid of anything, so they could easily get close enough to spear it.
Plus, the Maori brought rats and dogs with them and the Europeans brought cats, and with animal predation and human hunting, about half of NZ's bird species went extinct
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