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    An extremely low-density human population exterminated New Zealand moa

    Access Status
    Open access via publisher
    Authors
    Holdaway, R.
    Allentoft, M.
    Jacomb, C.
    Oskam, C.
    Beavan, N.
    Bunce, Michael
    Date
    2014
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
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    Citation
    Holdaway, R. and Allentoft, M. and Jacomb, C. and Oskam, C. and Beavan, N. and Bunce, M. 2014. An extremely low-density human population exterminated New Zealand moa. Nature Communications. 5 (5436).
    Source Title
    Nature Communications
    DOI
    10.1038/ncomms6436
    ISSN
    2041-1723
    School
    Department of Environment and Agriculture
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11442
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    New Zealand moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) are the only late Quaternary megafauna whose extinction was clearly caused by humans. New Zealand offers the best opportunity to estimate the number of people involved in a megafaunal extinction event because, uniquely, both the Polynesian settlement of New Zealand and moa extinction are recent enough to be dated with a high degree of precision. In addition, the founding human population can be estimated from genetic evidence. Here we show that the Polynesian population of New Zealand would not have exceeded 2,000 individuals before extinction of moa populations in the habitable areas of the eastern South Island. During a brief (<150 years) period and at population densities that never exceeded ~0.01 km-2, Polynesians exterminated viable populations of moa by hunting and removal of habitat. High human population densities are not required in models of megafaunal extinction.

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