Enlarge / The now-extinct Haast’s eagle hunting moa in New Zealand, which lacked other large predators. Today scientists are looking at the ancient history of the islands’ birds to better understand how “natural” biological invasions happen.John Megahan/CC
New Zealand has long been known as a place for the birds—quite literally. Before people arrived 700 years ago, the archipelago hosted an idiosyncratic ecosystem, nearly free of mammals. More than 200 bird species filled a food web all their own. Rather than cows or antelopes, there was a family of flightless birds known as moa. And in place of apex predators like
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