Pouākai - The World’s Largest Eagle
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ต.ค. 2024
- Until 150 years ago, European scientists believed the pouākai was just a myth. Today, Frank Film pays tribute to the world’s largest eagle that dominated the forested lands of the eastern South Island.
By Frank Film
It was a perfect but petrifying predator. A massive bird with hooked beak, talons like tigers’ claws and 3-metre wingspan, plummeting down at a speed of up to eighty kilometres an hour to attack its prey.
Europeans were originally sceptical of Māori stories and whakataukī that told of a giant eagle attacking moa and carrying away small children. These doubts were dashed 150 years ago when Canterbury Museum taxidermist Frederick Fuller found a clutch of unusual bones among some moa remains in a swamp in north Canterbury. He passed these findings - a leg bone, rib and a couple of claws - on to museum director Julius von Haast who issued the first scientific description of the bird. He named it Harpagornis moorei after the Greek word harpax meaning grappling hook.
In 1873 more bones were discovered, adding to a rare collection now held in an unprepossessing cabinet at Canterbury Museum.
For the first time, says Paul Scofield, senior curator of natural history at Canterbury Museum, European scientists had to admit the Māori whakataukī “were, in fact, correct.”
Since then their bones have been found at more than 50 sites in the South Island. Some are up to 30,000 years old, others are estimated to be only 500 years old, showing that eagles and humans were around at the same time (Waitaha stories tell of a large, man-eating eagle living in the Castle Hill area killed by a group of 50 warriors). Scofield points to a small pointed object in the Museum’s collection, originally found at Wairau Bar, one of the oldest Māori sites in New Zealand. “It was used by Māori to make holes in sealskin - it is one of the very few objects made from the bone of a pouākai.”
Such findings are rare. Found only in the South Island, there are only about 50-100 individual specimens in museums worldwide. “In the landscape,” Scofield tells Frank Film, “they were also very rare with less than 1000 pairs alive at any one time.” While they couldn’t have carried the weight of an adult human, “they definitely could have carried a baby. And we know that they predated moa, one of the largest birds that ever lived.”
Visitors to Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa can now see a life-size replica of this legendary bird, a large, sombre brown eagle glaring down through outstretched talons.
“It was such an amazing bird,” explains exhibition services manager and model maker Jake Yocum. “This is an eagle which was not just large in wingspan but also in sheer bulk and size and muscle. The legs were really solid and the talons were so powerful.”
Weighing up to 14 kilograms, they would have hit their prey - moa, rails, takahē, flightless geese and ducks and, potentially, small humans - with the force of a large stone being dropped from a great height.
Yocum points to the lacerated pelvis of a female moa weighing 180-200kg, about 14 times that of the Haast eagle.
“These are the actual puncture marks of the talons of the Haast eagle. To puncture the muscle in the bone is quite incredible.”
DNA studies show the pouākai’s nearest relative to be the little eagle of Australia.
“When it turned up here it had this unlimited food source,” explains Yocum. “As most apex predators do, it just continued to evolve.”
Despite competition from adzebills, the pouākai quickly became the apex predator, the only known example of an eagle species becoming the top predator in a complex ecosystem.
Then, they were gone.
“We can only surmise that they died out because their major prey, the moa, became extinct,” says Scofield. “We know they probably became extinct at precisely the same time.”
So we should have believed the oral histories in the first place?
“Exactly.”
Fun Fact: The Haast’s Eagle has a short wingspan for a bird of its size.
This is common in forest eagles, such as the Harpy or Philippines Eagle.
This allows the birds to easily move through dense forests without any trouble.
at one side you ruined already amazing animal, at the other side its really interesting fact. i am torn apart :)
@@kizgintosbaga Watch videos of Harpy Eagles and other Birds of Prey flying through woods, you will soon change your mind to be completely on board with such an interesting observation.
@@FirstDagger i do watch them. i live in mountains and some of us have them and i draw them, draw their bones, draw the bones of ancient ones. etc. they mesmerize me.
@@kizgintosbagaruined what?
On these lines this bird would have been much wider if not from forests. There might be such birds to be discovered but this particular one is no small eagle and much larger than any today. From your theory though it's much powerful for a 3metre wingspan of a bird.
I would love to see giant moa and giant Haast's Eagle 🦅 in action In real life. Man!
Thank the maoris
You love really easy 😅
@@DonKrieg-382 Everyone knows that only Europeans are responsible for the extinction of species, as everyone else lives in perfect harmony and at one with nature.
“We should’ve believed the old histories in the first place.”
This still rings true for so much.
Sad the Moa were hunted to extinction. Even earrly Australians knew not to do this. Brutes were in charge clearly over and above the wise.
@@AHD2105 What? The Aborigines were just as bad. Incredible and ancient lineages of life were extinguished by humans on that continent.
When Europeans arrived Maori had no knowledge of the Moa. I would take these stories with a grain of salt.
@@karlharrison2449 because the Maori had no written language and they burned out & devoured all the moa within a short period after landing.
@@karlharrison2449 Indeed. If scientists believed all the old histories, then we'd believe in all sorts of silly things, like unicorns, cyclops, werewolves and flat earth.
The Haast’s Eagle, the Moa, the Elephant Bird, the Dodo, and the Thylacine are among the most recent of extinct animals I hope we may some day be able to bring back through Science!
How about trying to PRESERVE the endangered animals we have today, instead of trying to bring back what's gone already??
@@veryunusual126 100%
@@veryunusual126 how about doing both?
@@nafvol5053 no, because preserving is easier, dammit, we messed up way too much already
@@veryunusual126
And bringing back what we destroyed can help preserve what is dammaged Anyway
When the New zealand animals actually are more like final fantasy and lord of the rings.
aotearoa*
One of the hand Wing curve? Thanks commenter
@@ariaaaaaa Shut up
Gandalfs Eagles design are based on off this Eagle
One of the great tragedies of NZ's history is to see all of these amazing birds gone. Image what it would be like for NZ tourism to have even more of our endemic birds left to be alive today. Not just the eagle but the moa and the many other species that have gone. If only we had some viable DNA to bring some of them back from the dead. Thanks for loading this here.
I discovered the existence of the haast eagle today and my heart is still pounding like crazy - out of sheer exitement and surprise. Imagine all the animals and plants we have lost just by discovering new horizons and finding new continents! I would give all of my belongings just to see those animals - that our ancestors have brought to extinction without even to realise!
All is not lost, as some of these birds went extinct not that far back in time, we might be able to get enough DNA together to clone them back to life, we already have some DNA, we just need more.
@@et34t34fdf My understanding was that it was not viable DNA. I am just a person with a wish and have no knowledge of the science. No doubt things are moving on though in that realm of science. What do we feed them on when they come back? With Moa, and larger species of birds, gone, they would have to predate on something. We would be better to focus on the herbivores, like the Moa, into the future.
@@kingy002 Yeah, probably, Moa is a fligthless herbivore, much less problematic than Haast Eagle, which is a dangerous predator, that can fly.
@@Dr-doom007 Ultracrepidarian!
Can’t believe it hunted Moa.. those things weighed like 600lbs.
The sheer force from the air impact as well as Moa being very slow and unadapted to counter predators, it make sense.
Not all Moa were that large, some were smaller, some where about the size of a modern turkey, others were around the size of a modern emu.
@@beastmaster0934 I know i am only reffering to the larger species like Dinornis.
@@eybaza6018I was thinking if the Haast’s Eagle was able to take down 12 foot tall 600 pound Giant Moas imagine what they would do to humans. Scary to think about
@@tommaggi1475 Its actually a pretty short anwser,instant death.
2:06 - 2:13 The eagle and moa shadows in
Tim Burton, Phil Tibbet, or Ray Harryhausen style.
That painting legit looks like a Talonflame.
It would have been fantastic beyond words!
In addition to the Haast eagle New Zealand also had a massive harrier the size of most eagles of today.
What is it called? Would like to read up on it!
@@slwrabbits eyles harrier
Legends/folklore come from truths.
*Some
I thought the eagle was named Frank.
I wish I could of seen one of these amazing birds in person. Eagles are incredible creatures, so large and so powerful, I can't imagine the immense power the Haasts had.
To this day this was the largest predator to ever exist on New Zealand.
Nah that’s the crown
@@FKTHESYSTEM063too true.
And just like almost all amazing megafuana hominds hunted them to extinction...
We truly are the most dangerous creature ever to evolve. A living blight upon the world, should we so choose.
I think the year was probably 1995/6 that around five of us (all children) plays on an open field. Above us an eagle was flying around in circle. Then we all look up for a while when the eagle suddenly diving down towards us just like they used to hunt their prey. There when the eagle reached about 5-6 foot above us it suddenly stop and fly away. That eagle was also a big one.
Great stuff, friend! Excited to see where we go from here!
i wonder how much bigger and stronger for it needs to actually be able to carry full grown humans?
There was one of them named Pouäkai that did kill women, children and men, and flew off with their corpses.
Well eagles can usually carry around half of their body weight max with out favorable wind. So for the average 160 pound person around 320 pounds.
does it need to carry thou ? if thats the size of the talons , they have no issue mauling a full grown human to death
There are videos on YT of eagles carrying off wolves then dropping them I think...either way, a fairly substantial mammal! These eagles were more than twice as big...
Scaling it up, I think as a conservative guess they'd be able to carry off children long distance, and - with their momentum and power - be able to carry small adults short distances before dropping them.
There are videos on YT of eagles carrying off wolves then dropping them I think...either way, a fairly substantial mammal! These eagles were more than twice as big...
Scaling it up, I think as a conservative guess they'd be able to carry off children long distance, and - with their momentum and power - be able to carry small adults short distances before dropping them.
“We should have believed the oral histories to begin with” no, the moral of the story is to question everything until you have proof in your hand.
Valid point
No, maori accounts and stories of what happened are proof
@@monica-ellengraham-vincent3556 hope they left some physical evidence to back it up, otherwise nah.
Currently, the Andean Condor is the largest flying bird in the world (it terms of average size). Yet the Haast Eagle was larger. And given the fact the it was a predatory bird, it’s no wonder that the Māori were terrified of the Haast Eagle. 🦅
So, how did Haast's Eagle become extinct?
When the experts don't say, we know.
Humans, they hunted the moa first till they were gone and then they also started great fires so their habitat was destroyed bringing them to their extinction
Any particular reason that you didn’t state that Māori over predation of moa caused both the Mos and the Haast eagle to go extinct?
probably because everyone already knew that cuz that's literally what these birds are known for just like dodo
No way , maori don't destroy the environment ...if they do its the fault of colonization
I’m sure it was not intentional, but the giant eagles were gone centuries before Europeans arrived. People, any people, bring ecological change with them. Dogs, pigs, rats, over-hunting. That’s why only the kiwi remained when Cook arrived. Same in Madagascar, Hawaii, the Americas, Australia. Lots of animals (and plants) that couldn’t make it in the presence of Humans and their ‘fellow travelers’. Europeans brought new waves of environmental damage. Indigenous people were affected by European contact as their ancestor’s arrivals had affected the pristine environments they found.
@@jenjen.rutherford8559 lol, you just proved my point. Maori history shouldn't be romaticised, it should be an honest account just like colonial history. By the way, moa and the haast eagle went extinct before colonisation.
@@jenjen.rutherford8559 humans are deadly predators and the most dangerous animal on the planet. There is no need to change the past to accomodate modern "moralities". Nature did its course that's all
The Ultimate Eagle.
Harpy Eagle & Wedge Tail Eagles have wingspans of up to 2.8M' However, max 9kg, this beast is just shy of 18kg. If you have seen a WT Eagle, just double the size of the body and thats Pouākai. If you still cant picture it, its body size is equal to a small SUV (then add the wings).
That thing could fly a Hobbit to Mordor.
>Doesn't mention why the Moa went extinct
Yes, modern scholars and bureaucrats believe we must only romanticise Māori history and never critique it
All human groups sent species to extinction not just the Māori.
@@BigJFindAWay let’s not pretend they had any special connection to or stewardship of the land they reached only a few hundred years before Europeans then, and devastated it in that short while.
It also would have made sense to say why the moa went extinct in the context of this video
@@chir0pterbecause Europeans are so innocent when it comes to killing off entire species of animals… They treated the American buffalo so well…
@@slamyourheadin9449 "By the 1830s the Comanche and their allies on the southern plains were killing about 280,000 bison a year, which was near the limit of sustainability for that region. Firearms and horses, along with a growing export market for buffalo robes and bison meat had resulted in larger and larger numbers of bison killed each year. A long and intense drought hit the southern plains in 1845, lasting into the 1860s, which caused a widespread collapse of the bison herds.[83]"
" **Twenty thousand years ago, North America had a more impressive array of big mammals than Africa does today; by 10,000 years ago, 34 genera of these mammals were gone, including the 10 species that weighed more than a ton.** " Guess who was here between 20,000 and 10,000 years ago
No gloves?! I thought the oils on the human hand had a negative effect on preservation. Great video, though. 😊
I also need to add in the Wedge-Tailed Eagle. Another currently living giant raptor of Australia and New Guinea. Wingspans of 9ft and body lengths a little over 3ft are not uncommon for this species.
Amazing!
A newspaper from late 1800s features story of a hunter that has shot 3 "giant hawks" I can remember no other details I will have to see if internet has any info.
I just watched a video asking the question, was Audubon's Washington Eagle real or a hoax. And now TH-cam shows me this.
Any thoughts on the Washington Eagle?
The Geo. Washington eagle was an exceptionally large eagle that has disappeared from the east coast area!
1:33 Maybe Richard Hammond
thanks david
Take into consideration folks. Were talking about a bird that was anywhere between 3-4ft in length. Weighed about 40lbs and had a max wingspan of nearly 10ft. After 40yrs in the avian field dealing with everything from warblers to birds of prey. I can't say i ever came close to a bird of prey matching this raptor's size. But i can tell you one that exists to this day that would rival it's strength. That being the Harpy Eagle. When i traveled to South America i watched this eagle kill sloths and monkeys right off trees. When i went to Africa it's equivalent in strength was there being the Martial Eagle. These two are some of the strongest birds of prey we have living today. Far stronger than a Bald or Golden Eagle. Steller's Sea Eagles are also large raptors but are mainly fish eaters like Bald Eagles are. So this eagle they are talking about would have definitely ruled the skies if still alive today. Such a beautifully preserved specimen on display in this video.
And fun fact: Haast's Eagle had the largest increase in weight overall of any vertebrate animal over the course of its existence, likely owing to the size of its prey and the lack of competition from other predators, meaning it could eat as much as it wanted to.
Was Haast eagle fearsome
Deffinetly, had the balls to hunt even the Giant South Island Moa and early Maori settelers.
Condor: fuck. They telling me not even the skies were clear?...man talk about "mass extraction"
wtf maoris are the one who over hunted moa and cause the extinction to haast eagle
So.. a real life talonflame?
National geo graphic measured it to a length of 22ft. Sth island tribe had a skeleton of 33ft 3mtr is what 9ft such an injustice to the hokioi
The Haast's Eagle (Harpagornis moorei) is an extinct eagle species that inhabited New Zealand, it was one of the largest eagles that ever lived, its closest known relative is the Mather's Eagle (Dynatoaetus gaffae) and the closest living relatives of both species are the Pygmy Eagle (Australotriorchis weiskei), the Little Eagle (Australotriorchis morphnoides), the Gurney's Eagle (Gigantotriorchis gurneyi), and the Wedge-Tailed Eagle (Gigantotriorchis audax), all these species are members of a unique tribe of true eagles known as Gigantotriorchidini, which is exclusively native to Oceania, this tribe was once more diverse containing many eagle species native to Oceania, many eagle species in the Gigantotriorchidini tribe have been known to take on large prey.
I wish the Pouakai were our national bird. 😊 Who chose the Kiwi? Even the Kia or the Moa.
Ikr
and whats wrong with kiwi ? at least they survive extinction .... lol
@@sdqsdq6274 Ther are now more Kiwi pairs than black billed seagulls, which is great, but actually the black billed gulls are recovering now too. Just there are more birds than just our Kiwi. Sad we lost the Moa and The Haast Eagle.
harpy eagle would like to say hello.
Amazing. How did it lift a 100kg+ bird like moa up in the air after killing it😮
It didn't need to, there were no other large predator or scavengers on the island so they could leave their kills in the open. Same reason why Moas would lay their eggs on the ground unprotected.
@@arjitjere1559 It didn't/couldn't.
I think you're sadly mistaken that it "blew off coarse"... did 100 others "blow off coarse too"?.... maybe the lands were earlier to reach when the water level was lower
The time to believe something is when you have EVIDENCE, not because of old stories like the giant fish your grandpa caught.
Brilliant science. But to reverse engineer science into every whakatauki (closing comments) is ludicrous.
Loved that closing comment. It's not the only time the oral histories of the Maori were ignored without any rational reason for it. When a white kid from the U.S. knows that, it's pretty bad, considering how full my hands already are with the dark parts of our own history.
That bird must have such a savagery 👹 history
Are they the same bird species as the ¨ Haast´s Eagle ¨ ?.
Yes. Same bird.
Yup.
Yep, Pouakai.
Yes.
Those talons look small compared to the Harpy Eagle's 10-12 cm. (4-5 inch) talons and legs as thick as a man's wrist.
Haast Eagle was 18kg as opposed to 9kg. Physics tells us which would do more damage. Nothing to do with wingspan or talon length.
"We should have believed the oral histories." -- Evidence is best.
I always ask myself why did we do this our culture would have been a whole lot stronger now we are the only natives in the world without an eagle companion.
Some tribesmen has a head out there. Please bring this raptor back.
these eagles are real ive seen them in Lotr
It’s interesting that we live at the same time as the blue whale, the largest animal in history. Yet in the past all of the land predators were so big
I wish they could bring back all these awesome giant birds! 🦖🪽🪶
@@MrWeaselwork Me too, bud. Me too.
Harpy Eagles have four inch Talons, double the size of the ones they are showing.
They have shown only the bone, without the ceratinous sheath. The talons on the bird would have been much much larger. The mere bones of the harpy are quite a bit smaller than the bones shown in the video.
@@Luca-bj3cq I see. Harpies have huge oversize feet for their size.
@@robertmclean9737 Harpy is only half the weight at a maximum of 9kg. Double that for Haast Eagle. It’s not about talon length of wing span, it’s physics. Being hit at speed by 18kg as opposed to 9kg.
Harpy's are here now not extinct.
The. Haast’s eagle was the Te Hokkoi bird and the Pouakai was another kind of a much much larger giant eagle
The names seem interchangeable from what I can tell, plus with the fact there was a second large bird of prey that’s was smaller then the haast on the island being the Eyles harrier. I won’t say this is fact as I’m not a person of maori descent so take this with a grain of salt.
Te hokioi and Pouakai, so majestic 🙌
@@Skyypixelgamer who cares what the Maori called it. They caused its extinction anyway.
@@chir0pter So should we not care about other extinction/ endangered species names because some people caused their extinction and also named them? No, because that’s what we need in order to tell people about them. Plus why shouldn’t we care about what the people who lived with the animals called them its culture and it shouldn’t just be wiped up under the rug. Saying we shouldn’t care about what the Haast was called is like saying we shouldn’t care about the names of Norse,Greek or any other god as both had about the same importance in those people’s cultures. I’m not saying you have to care but I don’t see why we shouldn’t.
@@Skyypixelgamer Haast's eagle is a fine name. I don't care to litigate what some invasive human population who caused its extinction called it.
Wonder what other unbelievable folklore were factual
Imagine running around with your friends one day then out of nowhere you get picked up by an eagle, dropped from an extreme height killing you from fall damage then it comes to collect its meal flies back into some tree far away from anyone and eats you 👀
That.......would never happen. WTF?
Size is growth in relation to the physical dementions of the environment, it has nothing to do with what one eats. Height and Weight(wing span and physical presence) is formed by the Nest, interior of the home(what ever tree, cave, or sidewalls). There is a possibility of a much larger bird alive today, if a place demanded its growth to fill that space. This means many tightly grouped=small and few far spaced=large, one of a kind from a never ending expanisveness could be 35 ft wingspan. Don't doubt generous reports, like the guy said, people in Europe did not belive the reports, well today there are limitations on cameras field of view, so continue to listen to 1st person reports. If there is an area off limits, or "sedated" uneducated locals in the dark, I bet there is a massive raptor, a big bird, a birdman condor there, think upper plateau and bald mt, where Giants walk today, birds never stop growing every single year of their life, they keep growing and growing, and growing. Peace.
Didn't get blown over, lands were connected
I thought the bird's name was Frank
So Adzebill was a predator?
It's a talon sir, not a claw.
this bird is very interesting like how it hunted and how i would kill
Could of been bigger ones, who knows how big they got to
Some of today's asian eagles also sometimes attempt to snatch small children.
The Haast's Eagle made the grave mistake of targeting small/young humans as prey. Would've been easy for the Maori to track the adults to the nests, kill the young/eggs and eventually hunt/trap the adults as well. That, along with the loss of the Moa, resulted in its swift extinction.
I........don't think that's what happened. At all.
I’m positive they’re still alive. I’ve witnessed something a decade ago, high in the sky, during a moon lit night, flapping massive wings. I’m an atheist and all my friends know i don’t mess around with myths and legends and ghosts and whatnot, so when I told them about it, most of them believed me. I even closed my eyes and refocused them to the clouds to see if I was seeing an illusion but I ended up sighting it again as I opened my eyes. It was flying in one direction, and just as I refocused and saw it again, it switched direction back to the way it came, and I kept my eyes on it until it disappeared into the distance, but I tell you, something massive was in the sky, flapping its wings like a dragon from movies, and I’m convinced we have something unseen flying above us during the night
"i'm an atheist" makes you lose your point from the start mate. Agnostic is the word
@@_d-- really couldn’t care less how you take it, I said what I said
It is almost impossible for them to be alive now as they essentially have no food. The modernisation of our national parks and the dominance of the other avian predators would already make it a challenge for the Haast to live if it is indeed alive like you claim
يوجد نسور الجناح الواحد ٣ متر وزيادة
وهي واقفه يصل إرتفاعها ١٧٠ إلى ١٨٠ سم وزيادة
هذه الطيور أظن أنها انقرضت والله أعلم
أو ممكن تم التكتم عليها لأجل
ترك تخويف الناس منها أو من السفر
إلى تلك البلدان التي تعيش هذه المخلوفات
So that’s where Peter Jackson got the idea of using the eagles in the lord of the rings and the Hobbit. Tolkien and c.s Lewis we’re both good friends they are both very cleaver authors.
PJ got the idea? What are you blabbering about?
It was in the books...
wrong, that would be haasts eagle
That's why when the Maori bang on about how oppressed they are by British colonialism, remind them they weren't just cannibals and slavers, they also wiped out several unique species of animals.
I found the angry white man guys
Harpy looks bigger
This was the plan? Looks close but nope
So jadayu from Ramayana could be true
Do you guys even have any animals left?
That's a stupid question
On one mammal and that’s a bat, every other one was introduced. Which is why our birds have been decimated.
Giant Moa and the Haast eagle couldn't survive in a modern world they would be a abused or exploited in sone way.
Oral history is a great place to start and well, well worth studying. But we shouldnt believe them...if thats true, go make a short about Pegasus or the Golden Fleece.
Moa means chicken and if you see us hori māori at KFC then you’ll understand why big bird was shoved in the forever box.
Maori indeed were a plague on the NZ environment.
Doesn't look that big to me 🤨🤷🏻♂️...
@@martinandersen1351 Oh, TRUST me. It was.
Could have had the largest eagle as your national animal... But you went for the kiwi... Friggin New Zealand, can't do anything right.
My uncle name is Frank
What about the harpy eagle
It's still smaller.
Oral history is very strong. The Aborigines also talked about Drop bears i.e. Marsupial lion.
Bloons doesn’t lie 😂
Thanks Maori
Such horrible people.
World's largest eagle's Talon is seems smallest 😅,like anything
Doesn't look as big as they make it out to be. Kinda small
One of the world's largest Eagles, how interesting
Haast Eagle
Pouakai.
NZ.
The way of the dodo by bad religion or slowly going the way of the buffalo by mxpx
This cantonese bird would screech "pokkai!" whenever it dropped its prey in midflight.
that would be the hasst eagle
Not the original name sorry
False. The Washington Sea Eagle was the largest in the world
Wow! Just watched The History Guy's video on this subject and I believe Audubon's depiction was credible. The Washington eagle had(s) a 10 foot wing span and might still be alive today.
So... A theory.
DNA gene splicing the Hokioi back again, let it loose in some of the national parks. Keep the wild deer/goat populations in check.