Poor moas - all killedThe first human settlers in New Zealand found that hunting the huge flightless birds called moas was really easy. Unfortunately, they had killed them all in less than a hundred years. This recent finding supports the idea that early human hunters were to blame for the extinction of large animals in places like Australia and the Americas, according to American anthropologist Jared Diamond [1].

1. New Scientist, 1/4/00, 15