Moa were hunted to extinction less than 200 years after human arrival, disappearing between 1440 and 1445 AD, according to a new study that has shed more light on their demise.
The researchers have also revealed that the giant flightless bird managed to cling on for just 50 years once they became critically endangered.
Using the largest database of radiocarbon dates ever compiled on natural and archaeological moa remains, researchers from the University of Auckland and Landcare Research have been able to paint a new and remarkably detailed picture.
"This is the first time we have been able to show that extinction was both rapid and synchronous across New Zealand," said Associate Professor George Perry of the University of Auckland's School of Environment and School of Biological Sciences.
"Moa were hunted to the point of being critically endangered within 150 years of settlement, after which only a few small populations clung on in remote mountain regions, but only for another 50 years before they vanished forever."
The research team, including Landcare Research Palaeoecologist Dr Janet Wilmshurst who is also an Associate Professor in the University of Auckland School of Environment, along with co-authors Jamie Wood from Landcare Research and University of Auckland student Andrew Wheeler, have produced a "time zero" for the beginning of the end for the moa: the arrival of humans in the mid-13th Century.
"Previous studies have relied on older and less precise dates so what this research does is help settle a long-standing debate about the speed and nature of this extinction," Dr Wilmshurst said.
"We now have a much clearer understanding of when and how it happened."
The study showed there was little difference in the extinction timeframe for the largest to the smallest moa: from more than 200 kg to less than 50 kg.
The research analysed 653 radiocarbon dates from moa remains to pinpoint the extinction timeline.
"We always suspected extinction was remarkably rapid for the moa and we now have evidence that none of them survived into the post-European era," Dr Wood said.
The research also provides new and fascinating insights into how intense hunting pressure on these giant, slow-breeding birds would have been to bring about such a catastrophic decline in such a short time.
Based on an updated population estimate of about 58,000 moa at the time of human arrival, along with the generally-accepted human founding population in New Zealand of 100 people growing at 1 percent per year, the research team estimate it would have taken just five birds harvested per person per year to eliminate moa within 200 years, Associate Professor Perry said.
