page_title: Moa
section_title: South Island
hierarchical_section_title: Moa / Distribution and habitat / South Island
caption_attribution_description: South Island Giant Moa, Dinornis robustus (forground) and Pachyornis elephantopus (background).
context_page_description: Moa were nine species of now-extinct flightless birds endemic to New Zealand. The two largest species, Dinornis robustus and Dinornis novaezelandiae, reached about 3.6 m in height with neck outstretched, and weighed about 230 kg while the smallest, the bush moa, was around the size of a turkey. Estimates of the Moa population when Polynesians settled New Zealand circa 1280, vary between 58,000 to c. 2.5 million.
  Moa belong to the order Dinornithiformes, traditionally placed in the ratite group. However, their closest relatives have been found by genetic studies to be the flighted South American tinamous, once considered to be a sister group to ratites. The nine species of moa were the only wingless birds lacking even the vestigial wings that all other ratites have. They were the largest terrestrial animals and dominant herbivores in New Zealand's forest, shrubland, and subalpine ecosystems until the arrival of the Māori, and were hunted only by the Haast's eagle. Moa extinction occurred around 200 years after human settlement primarily due to overhunting by the Māori.
context_section_description: The two main faunas identified in the South Island include:
  The fauna of the high-rainfall west coast beech (Nothofagus) forests that included Anomalopteryx didiformis (bush moa) and Dinornis robustus (South Island giant moa), and
  The fauna of the dry rainshadow forest and shrublands east of the Southern Alps that included Pachyornis elephantopus (heavy-footed moa), Euryapteryx gravis, Emeus crassus, and Dinornis robustus.
  A 'subalpine fauna' might include the widespread D. robustus, and the two other moa species that existed in the South Island:
  Pachyornis australis, the rarest moa species, the only moa species not yet found in Maori middens. Its bones have been found in caves in the northwest Nelson and Karamea districts (such as Honeycomb Hill Cave), and some sites around the Wanaka district.
  Megalapteryx didinus, more widespread, named "upland moa" because its bones are commonly found in the subalpine zone. However, it also occurred down to sea level, where suitable steep and rocky terrain (such as Punakaiki on the west coast and Central Otago) existed. Their distributions in coastal areas have been rather unclear, but were present at least in several locations such as on Kaikoura, Otago Peninsula, and Karitane.
caption: A restoration of Dinornis robustus and Pachyornis elephantopus, both from the South Island
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