Haast's eagle

Haast's eagle
Temporal range: Pleistocene to Late Holocene
Skull at the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch

Extinct (~1400) (NZ TCS)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Accipitriformes
Family: Accipitridae
Genus: Hieraaetus
Species:
†H. moorei
Binomial name
†Hieraaetus moorei
(Haast, 1872)
Synonyms
  • Aquila moorei Haast, 1872
  • Harpagornis moorei Haast, 1872

Haast's eagle (Hieraaetus moorei) is an extinct species of eagle that lived in the South Island of New Zealand, commonly accepted to be the pouākai of Māori mythology.[2] It is the largest eagle known to have existed, with an estimated weight of 10–18 kilograms (22–40 pounds), compared to the next-largest and extant harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja), at up to 9 kg (20 lb).[3] Its massive size is explained as an evolutionary response to the size of its prey—the flightless moa—the largest of which could weigh 200 kg (440 lb). Haast's eagle became extinct around 1445, following the arrival of the Māori, who hunted moa to extinction, introduced the Polynesian rat (Rattus exulans), and destroyed large tracts of forest by fire.[4]

  1. ^ "Aquila moorei". nztcs.org.nz. Archived from the original on 20 July 2023. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  2. ^ Giant eagle (Aquila moorei), Haast's eagle, or Pouakai Archived 22 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Museum of New Zealand: Te Papa Tongarewa. Retrieved 27 October 2010.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Perry, George L.W.; Wheeler, Andrew B.; Wood, Jamie R.; Wilmshurst, Janet M. (1 December 2014). "A high-precision chronology for the rapid extinction of New Zealand moa (Aves, Dinornithiformes)". Quaternary Science Reviews. 105: 126–135. Bibcode:2014QSRv..105..126P. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.09.025.