The Haast's Eagle (Harpagornis moorei) is an extinct species of eagle that once lived in the South Island of New Zealand. It was the largest eagle known to have existed, with females weighing up to 15 kilograms and having a wingspan of up to 3 meters. Their primary food source was the moa, a group of large flightless birds which also went extinct.Why did the haast eagle go extinct?
The extinction of the Haast's Eagle is closely linked to the extinction of the moa. When Polynesians, the ancestors of the Māori people, arrived in New Zealand, they began to hunt moa intensively, leading to the moa's rapid extinction by about 1400 AD.
As the moa was the primary prey of the Haast's Eagle, the extinction of the moa led to the Haast's Eagle's extinction due to lack of food. This occurred around the same time, within a century or so of human arrival in New Zealand.
Moreover, in addition to losing their food source, Haast's Eagles may have been directly hunted by humans. They would have posed a potential threat to humans hunting moa or to children, and their large size and rarity might have made them a valuable resource or a target for status-driven killing.
It's a tragic example of the domino effect that the extinction of one species can have on others within the same ecosystem.