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Nature 420, 361 (28 November 2002) | doi:10.1038/420361a

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No more moa

Stuart Pimm1

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Human activities depleted much of New Zealand's fauna. Let it be a warning.

Ninety years ago, Urupeni Puhara, a nonagenarian Maori chief, said that 'te kura' ('red bird'), not 'moa', was his ancestors' name for the country's great bird. 'Moa' means chicken, and its application, the chief thought, was a mistake by the Victorians who first found the giant bones.