South Island Giant Moa
Dinornis robustus
🦤
Chordata
Aves
Palaeognathae
Dinornithiformes
Dinornithidae
Dinornis robustus
The Giant of New Zealand’s Lost Forests — Dinornis robustus, the South Island Giant Moa, once towered as one of the tallest birds to ever walk the Earth. These colossal flightless herbivores roamed the forests and shrublands of New Zealand’s South Island, browsing on leaves, twigs, and fruits.
Description
Standing over 3.6 meters tall with its neck extended, and around 2 meters at the shoulder, Dinornis robustus was an herbivorous bird with long, powerful legs and a small head adapted for high browsing. Its feathers were soft and hairlike, and unlike modern birds, it lacked wings entirely — not even vestigial stubs. The moa filled a large-herbivore niche in New Zealand’s isolated ecosystem, where there were no native land mammals except bats.
Quick Facts
Max Mass
Shoulder Height
Standing Height
Length
Diet
Trophic Level
250
2
3.6
2.5
kg
m
m
m
Mixed Feeder
Herbivores – Browsers
Hunt History
The arrival of the Māori people in New Zealand around the 13th century marked the beginning of the moa’s end. These early Polynesian settlers hunted Dinornis robustus for meat, feathers, and bones, which they used for tools and ornaments. Massive cooking pits and midden heaps filled with moa bones testify to large-scale hunting. With no natural defenses and slow reproduction, the species vanished within two centuries of human arrival.
Archaeological Evidence of Human Predation:
Wairau Bar, Marlborough (South Island) — Early 14th century CE: midden remains containing Dinornis bones charred and butchered.
Waitaki River Valley, Canterbury (South Island) — c. 1350 CE: moa-hunting camps with stone tools and egg fragments.
Rock Shelter, Central Otago (South Island) — c. 1400 CE: final traces of moa bone fragments and feather remains associated with Māori tools.
Time & Range
Extinction Status
Globally Extinct
Extinction Date
Temporal Range
Region
10000
BP
Late Pleistocene
New Zealand
Wiki Link
Fat Analysis
Fatness Profile:
Medium
Fat %
8
Est. Renderable Fat
20
kg
Targeted Organs
Subcutaneous skin fat, marrow (limited)
Adipose Depots
Subcutaneous skin fat; marrow limited
Preferred Cuts
Skin fat
Hunt Difficulty (x/5)
2