| [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. |