Upland moa
Fast facts
- Conservation status
- Extinct
- Genus
- Megalapteryx
- Species
- didinus
Scientific name
- Scientific name
- Megalapteryx didinus
How to say it in other languages
- Japanese
- オオツバサモア
Facts from Wikipedia’s “Upland moa” page and Wikispecies (CC BY-SA 4.0).
The upland moa (Megalapteryx didinus) was a type of moa. It only lived in New Zealand. It could not fly. It was the last moa species to become extinct.
Description
The upland moa was among the smallest type of moa. It had feathers all over its body except for its beak and the bottom of its feet.
Distribution and Habitat
The upland moa only lived on New Zealand’s South Island. It lived high up in mountains and sub-alpine regions.
Behavior and ecology
The upland moa was a herbivore. It ate leaves and small twigs. It usually laid only 1 to 2 blue-green coloured eggs. The male moa took care of the baby moas. Its only predator before humans came to New Zealand was the Haast’s eagle.
Extinction
Humans first came to New Zealand from Polynesia around 1250 to 1300 AD. Moas, were an easy source of food for the Māori people and were eventually hunted to extinction in 1500.
Written for younger readers
Upland moa, in simpler words
This version comes from Wikijunior, a set of books written for children aged 8 to 11. It is shorter and uses plainer language than the article above.
From Wikijunior: Extinct Birds
The upland moa is an extinct bird.
It was a little less than 1 metre tall and weighed between 17 and 34 kilograms. It was rather small for a moa.
It lived in mountainous regions in New Zealand, before it became extinct about 500 years ago.
Unlike most other types of moa, it was nearly completely covered in feathers. This was probably because it lived in rather cold places. They had no wings and no tail.
They were herbivores, meaning that they did not eat meat. We know this because we looked at the structure of their mouth, objects in their stomachs and their droppings.
They normally laid one or two blue-green eggs. The male upland moas looked after the chicks and eggs.
Before humans arrived, they were predated by haast’s eagle, which is also now extinct. They became extinct due to hunting by humans and, though not as much, by their habitat being destroyed.
Where this page comes from
The article above is adapted from “Upland moa” on Simple English Wikipedia, by its contributors. We removed reference markers, navigation boxes and tables, expanded measurement templates into readable numbers, and kept the prose otherwise intact. The simpler version is adapted from Wikijunior on Wikibooks.
Both sources are published under CC BY-SA 4.0, so this page is published under the same licence. You may share and adapt it, including commercially, as long as you credit the original and keep the same licence.
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