The Huia

The extinction of the Huia. What a tragedy! It shouldn’t have happened.

The huia was a special New Zealand bird. They lived in forests in the North Island.The huia had black feathers all over it’s body and a white tip on it’s tail feathers. The male had a short beak and the female had a long, curved beak, they both had pretty orange wattles on their cheeks.

The huia became extinct because the Maori brought dogs and rats that killed a large number of huia, and because they cut down the trees that were their homes.Then the Europeans brought more predaters to New Zealand.

In the 1880’s some Maori chiefs tried to save the huia, and made it illegal to kill the huia.They told the Maoris and the Europeans to stop killing the huia.They also took them to predater free islands where they might be safe. But they died anyway.

In 1902, people started hunting huia again for their feathers.The last time a huia was seen alive, was in 1907.

Wouldn’t it be better seeing huia alive flying in our forests, instead of stuffed ones in the museum.