Haast's Eagle

A Haastadler accesses to Moa

The Haastadler ( Harpagornis moorei ) was about 10-18 kg and a wingspan of three meters, the largest bird of prey in modern times. The Haastadler lived in New Zealand and hunted mainly the different moas, probably as well as various other large flightless birds, such as the South Island to 18 kg giant goose ( Cnemiornis calcitrans ). Along with these and other animals Harpagornis disappeared relatively soon after the ancestors of modern Māori New Zealand populated.

Name

The Māori named the bird Pouakai Te or Te Hokioi, the second name was preferred and probably a phonetic equivalent of the cry was: Hokioi - Hokioi. There is an old Maori rock drawing showing a man with two very large, dead birds. While one probably represents an albatross, the other as a picture of a Harpagornis is considered. The first scientific description comes from Julius von Haast (1874 ), who named it after George Henry Moore, the owner of the Glenmark Estate, on which were found bones of the bird.

Description

The Harpagornis was rumored that he was a cannibal. In contrast to the Moas he, like many other birds of prey may be eradicated targeted. The rapid disappearance of its main prey, the moa, and other large flightless birds probably be accelerated extinction. There are a number of fossil finds, including three complete skeletons and edited by settlers bone. It is believed that he became extinct along with the Moaarten in the 15th century, however, there was to the 19th century reports of alleged sightings of large eagles. Around the year 1905 an eagle's nest was allegedly been sighted, but this is very unlikely.

Harpagornis filled a specific gap in the New Zealand fauna dominated by birds, in which there was never any ground predators except an approximately 60 cm Riesengeckoart. The booty was pierced with a particularly long and powerful claws, some of large bone pierced.

He probably waited on an elevated place, such as a tree, on passing prey and then crashed at high speed on it.

DNA analyzes show that the Haastadler was genetically closely related to the Eurasian Booted Eagle ( Hieraaetus pennatus ) and the rabbit Eagle (Hieraaetus morphnoides ) and not, as previously thought, with the Australian wedge-tailed eagle (Aquila audax ). The branch of Haastadlers developed against about 700,000 to 1.8 million years ago. The increase of its own weight by a factor of 10 to 15 during this time period represents one of the fastest evolutionary size increases, which have been observed in vertebrates. It was probably favored by the presence of large prey and the absence of other great hunter.