Just thinking of all the non-native species introduced to your poor land.

https://www.goldcoastbulletin....be156b1cbee1ec601f4e

Can't own a pet rabbit...but there are wild rabbits all over the place where I am. Local governments turn a blind eye to it as it cost money to control them.

Give us something to hunt however

never knew rabbits were rodents - always thought they were lagomorphs. Maybe aussie rabbits are differant ...

To go into more detail
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagomorpha

well - every single mammal species in New Zealand - bar the seal - is introduced . There were no native terrestrial animals save two species of bat when humans first arrived.

Muzza, wasn't there the giant flightless moa and a giant eagle that preyed on the moa?

There was indeed the flightless Moa - all nine variants of it , and Haasts Eagle would have been a sight to behold . None of those species survived the arrival of polynesians to this land .

But birds arent mammals , are they ....

Kind of think if the Haast eagle had survived, they would have enjoyed eating Chamois and Thar. Wish I could sit on a mountain and watch that display.

Any raptor that could carry off a chamois would have been a threat to people too. Would have been great to see them flying though - think wedge-tailed eagles on steroids

quote:

Originally posted by muzza:
Any raptor that could carry off a chamois would have been a threat to people too. Would have been great to see them flying though - think wedge-tailed eagles on steroids

There was a story awhile back about a French tourist eaten by Griffon Vultures after falling 1000 feet to her death.
The birds finished the carcass before rescuers arrived 45 or so minutes later.

once you are dead you are just another protein source for some other species

Yes Muzza, you did say mammals I stand corrected.

I find it ridiculous that the penalties that they threaten the ordinary people with for owning a rabbit, having an unregistered gun..........whatever? are far worse than what you get if you assault people, traffic in drugs, trespass, production of drugs, rape, arson, murder etc.......actual crimes !!!!

At different times I have seen penalties of 14 years jail for the possession of an unregistered firearm when I have seen offenders charged with 8 years for premeditated murder. This is ridiculous.

You can be a lowlife drug dealing/producing stand over merchant/gang member, murderer and get less time than they're threatening someone with an unlicensed rifle with.

Something is badly wrong with the mindset of the legislators.

quote:

Originally posted by 376 steyr:
Muzza, wasn't there the giant flightless moa and a giant eagle that preyed on the moa?

I have my doubts about this, and it upsets a lot of kiwis. The haast eagle despite its wingspan was still only around 10-12kg, the body size of a small cocker spaniel.

The heavy boned moa weighed up to 250kg. Its a 20x prey weight differential which is far too much.

For example the todays largest eagle, the golden can weigh up to 7kg, so its half the haasts weight right there. You dont see it bringing down ostrich, emu's, hogs, lions, small bears, young cattle or people in the 100-150kg class.

Lets be realistic if birds of prey could do this, the world would be a different place. The 'terror from the skies' would have made functioning in daylight hours very difficult for many species.

Again this upsets a lot of kiwis because I think it is partly fact( maybe haast predation on very young moa), and they do find marks on bones from the haast(maybe scavenging) and a lot of other theories about it divebombing and breaking the birds back( again, if raptors could do this, half the animal kingdown would be crippled). But I think too much native legend and sloppy science is involved.

At the risk of seeming upset.... There is a lot known about Haasts eagle. Weight up to 16-16.5 kg for females. Short wingspan with increased loading to allow it to attack its prey in treed habitat. Moa remains show it attacked the pelvic region and kidneys.

Other factors that point strongly to it preying on Moa include its phenomenal evolution, size wise. It evolved from the Australian little eagle in 700,000 to 1.8 million years.

Whether it preyed on humans is pointless to assume unless archeological evidence shows up. Its only something we see here on National geographic sensationalist shows.
Having said that, there are a number of myths of large birds taking humans, so I would not rule out some truth in it... But realistically sharks take humans and we still swim and in 5000 years if A copy of jaws shows up at a dig site... well you should get my meaning.

Actually the body of evidence supporting the haast wiping out the moa is extremely thin mate. In scientific terms if you look through all the articles on it, its about the most loosely applied theory in the history of anything. The far stronger theory is the arrival of humans in its habitat.You have the extinction of an animal coinciding with the arrival of a humans yet a few markings on bones from an eagle 95% smaller than it, which would be scavenging....so we conclude without doubt its the eagles fault also being the only eagle form in recorded history to pull down 500lb animals? Good heavens!

What it really looks like is science mixed with local legend and political correctedness in not wanting to admit a non-white native race actually wiped out an animal species before we got there...


No offence but its the sloppiest science in the whole encyclopedia.

No one is seriously claiming the eagle wiped out the moa. Not sure where you have got that from. Have never even heard it suggested.
It is accepted that the eagle died out because humans removed its food source.
Did you know the reason our native kea was nearly wiped out by hunting, was because it had the propensity to attack sheep and kill them, landing on their back and digging into the back near the kidneys for the fat. Thats a bird of a few hundred grams. We used to be able to buy a short barrelled 410 shotgun specifically for keas.
Also I would like to point out that not all Moa were 500lb. there were 9 species ranging from 50lb to 500.
I guarantee eagles scavenged where they could. but given the environment they were living in I dont think it would have been a very successful evolutionary tactic.

And apparently its still happening today.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/scienc...-kea-attacking-sheep

quote:

Originally posted by twobobbwana:
I find it ridiculous that the penalties that they threaten the ordinary people with for owning a rabbit, having an unregistered gun..........whatever? are far worse than what you get if you assault people, traffic in drugs, trespass, production of drugs, rape, arson, murder etc.......actual crimes !!!!

At different times I have seen penalties of 14 years jail for the possession of an unregistered firearm when I have seen offenders charged with 8 years for premeditated murder. This is ridiculous.

You can be a lowlife drug dealing/producing stand over merchant/gang member, murderer and get less time than they're threatening someone with an unlicensed rifle with.

Something is badly wrong with the mindset of the legislators.

Many of us can't fathom that line of thinking but it exists here in the US as well. Crazy bastards have been allowed to legislate.

On another note....interesting stuff about the moa, kea and eagle.