Haast’s Eagle Was Big & Strong Enough to Prey on Humans

The strongest and biggest bird of prey that ever existed was the Haast’s Eagle (Harpagornis moorei) of New Zealand, and it became extinct around the 1400s soon after the Maori settled the South Island of New Zealand.

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Ancient Cooking Stones Help Reconstruct Earth’s Magnetic History

Cooking stones that line Maori steam ovens in New Zealand are helping scientists study the history of the Earth’s magnetic field. The cooking process generates so much heat that the magnetic minerals in the stones will realign themselves with the direction of the current field.

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Transgendered Bellbird Discovered in New Zealand

New Zealand bellbird, Anthornis melanura, Image: Richard Ashurst/Flickr

Biologists have uncovered a spotted New Zealand bellbird (Anthornis melanura) in Karori’s Zealandia eco-sanctuary that exhibits features and behavior of both male and female members of the species.

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Giant Oligocene Kairuku Penguins Stood Nearly Five Feet Tall

Paleontologists have reconstructed a model of the Kairuku penguin that stood almost 4 feet 6 inches in height in what’s now New Zealand. The Kairuku penguin lived approximately 25 million years ago, in the Oligocene epoch, in the Chattian age.

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Boxwood Fungus Blight Invades North America After Taking Europe and New Zealand by Storm

A boxwood blight, caused by an aggressive fungus disease, has started to invade the North American continent, after it had spread throughout Europe and New Zealand. Last October, US authorities confirmed that the blight had jumped continents, and started infections in North Carolina and Connecticut.

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Dunedin, New Zealand

Dunedin, New Zealand vis In Focus