| [00:00.00] | The cats were removed from Stephens Island, |
| [00:03.22] | but it was too late for the wren. |
| [00:05.13] | Now only known from a few cat-chewed museum specimens, |
| [00:08.75] | evolving to be flightless had proven fatal. |
| [00:12.26] | So it seems there is a trade-off. |
| [00:14.29] | The freedom of island life allows a species to relax its guard, |
| [00:18.61] | but that can leave it defenceless. |
| [00:21.56] | on the main islands of New Zealand, |
| [00:23.85] | similar dramas have played out time and time again. |
| [00:27.56] | Forests dominated by giant kauri trees once covered the North Island. |
| [00:32.97] | The fragments that remain look much like they have for millennia, |
| [00:36.49] | but looks can be deceiving. |
| [00:38.52] | A few centuries ago, |
| [00:39.82] | this forest echoed with the calls of strange and wonderful birds. |
| [00:44.76] | Most famous was the giant moa, |
| [00:47.33] | which looked a bit like an ostrich, |
| [00:49.24] | but taller than an elephant. |
| [00:51.04] | And there are many more birds |
| [00:52.83] | whose haunting songs now exist here only in memory. |
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