There was apparently a unaired Doctor Who episode from the 1970's where an eccentric scientist constructs a time machine to go back in time to see and mourn the last of the Dodo. I like to think he would he would also have dropped by to see the Huia...

@HenrythePaleoGuy

8 ай бұрын

Oh interesting. Would have been nice to have seen that get made.

Saw them at the Berlin NHM. I don't think I can even express at how sad I am because of their extinction,all because of our actions as a species...Among the crown jewels of NZ's world-renowned birds

@HenrythePaleoGuy

8 ай бұрын

They're really beautiful to see in person. So much larger too than I though they'd be!

This is the best presentation on the Huia I have seen in the whole of my over 70 years of life.

@HenrythePaleoGuy

8 ай бұрын

I'm so glad that I could provide it!

Oh, Henry. It has been a hard emotional week and I just don;t think I could watch this without ending up in tears. I. Will. Not. Cry.

@HenrythePaleoGuy

8 ай бұрын

I hope you keep well. I'm sorry to hear that. It's very unfortunate that we lost these birds. Just means we have to collectively do what we can to keep the ones that are still going. Easier said than done of course, but every little bit helps. :)

Thanks for this Henry! Love this series. Really fantastic scholarship. There's a great book from the 1960s called "The Book of the Huia" which has many first hand accounts. One tragic story where a government expedition was led away from a known Huia area so they could keep harvesting them. The bird really didn't stand a chance. Some of its original habitat still exists east of Wellington and there are plans to turn it into a Zealandia type sanctuary with predator proof fence. Would be incredible to revive these birds through cloning or other means. They were really taken too soon.

You really went above and beyond with this video. Such a terribly sad ending for a sacred bird, and a really good example of why the promotion of knowledge about NZ birds and their conservation is a worthwhile cause.

Hearing the surviving recorded calls of an extinct bird species gave me serious chills. Thank you for sharing this with us.

Now I believe there was a 2016 film (directed by Taika Waititi and starring Sam Neill) that showed this bird.

It’s crazy to think of the extreme sexual dimorphism of the Huia. We’ll never truly know the behavioural differences of the genders but the true tragedy is in their extinction. It makes me extremely sad to think I’ll never be able to see the largest wattle bird of NZ. RIP.

Extraordinary song re-creation, both the whistle version and the enhanced version

@HenrythePaleoGuy

8 ай бұрын

It's really superb!

Another pretty fascinating - though also pretty sad video. Hopefully it serves as a memento. Thanks a lot, Henry!

EPIC NZBOTW. Appreciate the work that went into this.

@HenrythePaleoGuy

8 ай бұрын

Thanks a bunch! It was a blast to put together! :)

I absolutely love your videos ♥️ your Maori pronunciation is pretty good, I think with a tapped R not a rhotic one you'd sound as good as most pakeha (white nzers)

Hey, if the dude that kept them for a year reckons they were cooperating in captivity I'd think that it's entirely possible that they may have cooperated in the wild. I mean they could catch grubs separately, but they'd have been more sucsessful when working together.

@riverAmazonNZ

8 ай бұрын

Yeah, why not? I think it’s plausible.

@HenrythePaleoGuy

8 ай бұрын

Potentially, though it may not have been among the only reasons for them developing such bills. :)

@rileyernst9086

8 ай бұрын

​@@HenrythePaleoGuy I mean, I'd agree it's probably not the reason why they evolved such a bill(because they would have presumably started with the same beak shapes/sizes) so niche partitioning would make a ton of sense, but I think it's very much a behavior that their different beaks could facilitate, and if we have an observation of them doing it I don't see any reason why I'd doubt that they would. Mated pairs would be more successful as working in concert they can get to more resources than they could individually, and they seem to have formed intense bonds. Perhaps one of the reasons for these really tight bonds is that they sometimes/often foraged together when not looking after the eggs/nest. Also I also think it's just a really cute, individually they can get enough to survive, but working together they can thrive. Both sexes are different and synergise when they work together, It's some Wheel of Time shit right there and I love it.

Wow, I’ve never seen any animal with that kind of sexual dimorphism. I can’t think of any other animal that has dimorphic characteristics potentially related to intraspecific competition for food. It’s a shame so many NZ birds went extinct due to hunting and introduction of mammals

@HenrythePaleoGuy

8 ай бұрын

It's really incredible! Also truly shameful that they became extinct. Such a disgrace on the part of european settlers who had the power to do something but didn't.

Thank you for making this 🥲🥲

@HenrythePaleoGuy

8 ай бұрын

My pleasure!

best episode ever ,, loved it.

@HenrythePaleoGuy

8 ай бұрын

Awesome to hear!

Fantastic Video as always!! :) 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 ❤️💖❤️💖

Bittersweet. Glad you see New Zealand Bird of the Week back, but it's another sad example of an extinction. I hope everyone who killed the bird for the feathers is in hell!

Beautiful but sad.

_Peace on Planet Earth._

The most Beautiful bird that graced Aotearoa's forests

@HenrythePaleoGuy

8 ай бұрын

Certainly up there!

So many species lost.

@HenrythePaleoGuy

8 ай бұрын

Unfortunately so... It's really sad to think that things could have been so different for them. Just means we have to do the best we collectively can today to make positive change for the ones still here with us. :)

Hey Henry The PaleoGuy, why don’t you get to make a suggestion creating a KZread Videos that’s all about the 🦜Extinct Prehistoric Extinct Parrot Species of Norfolk Island called the Norfolk Kākā (Nestor productus)🦜 on the next New Zealand Bird Of The Week coming up next?!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️👍👍👍👍👍

It may be possible to retrieve the DNA of the Huia and create a hybrid from an extant related specis

Great video ,you should put captions in your viewers since youtube doesnt do a good job sometimes with the names.

this was a great video, but I nearly couldn't bring myself to hit the like button because. . . god damn it :( I remember as a kid occasionally coming across old 5c pieces that had the huia on them, and that really struck me with how close we came to still having them. (Though I think those coins might have been minted in the 20's, after the were already likely extinct).

@chazsaw

8 ай бұрын

I decided to have a dig through a bag of old coins I have in a desk draw, and it turns out I had one from the 60's, so much more recent than I thought and definitely minted with the knowledge that they were extinct.

@HenrythePaleoGuy

8 ай бұрын

It's certainly very sad... Things could well have gone so differently for them and so many other species.

@HenrythePaleoGuy

8 ай бұрын

Still exceptionally recent extinction, of course. My great-grandparents were all vibing at that point.

@chazsaw

8 ай бұрын

At least there is some heart to be taken with the fact that we have gotten better. Well, with our charismatic species at least.

They're protected. But the Duke had a feather in his hat and I wants one! Well their feathers are not protected so they're not!

@HenrythePaleoGuy

8 ай бұрын

The ficklety of colonial New Zealand at its finest.

@rileyernst9086

8 ай бұрын

@@HenrythePaleoGuy Hey, at least you guys didn't lose in a war to one of your native birds. XP

Please do the st bathans giant parrot!🦜🦜!

Nice♡

nice

Unfortunately we are no long at the point where we can protect species. Without stopping climate change the majority will become extinct. One example: the last dry summer in northern NZ saw many malnourished kiwi being observed because they are unable to dig for food in the hard dry soil in the forests

awh. With such recent extinction I hope there's enough DNA data to de-extinct these wonderful birds once the science peeps finally start de-extincting things we still have DNA for.

It would have been better for all New Zealand wildlife if the Maori (and Polynesian rat) didn't invade and colonise in the first place. Then the much larger populations would have been better to withstand European settlement.

This is yet another in a long line of reasons why "fuck colonialism".

New record today for a Huia feather. Sadly this to me is proof that as a species we never learn. The auctioneers were bedside themselves with glee at the price and the talk in the papers was, again, mainly focused on the huge price gained. Given that greed and self interest were drivers in this amazing birds extinction the same psychodynamic seems to be prevalent now as it was in days gone by. An informative and throughly fascinating video.

You do what you can but... you are not a great speaker. Find a friend, Best an actor, and let she/him do the voice. Otherwise a god little film and subject.

Hey Henry The PaleoGuy, why don’t you get to make a suggestion creating a KZread Videos that’s all about the 🦜Extinct Prehistoric Extinct Parrot Species of Norfolk Island called the Norfolk Kākā (Nestor productus)🦜 on the next New Zealand Bird Of The Week coming up next?!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️👍👍👍👍👍

@HenrythePaleoGuy

8 ай бұрын

I covered them briefly in my Kaka video way back when. :)