Pouakai, the Giant Eagle
Māori traditions tell of a giant bird that could swoop on people. Bones of the largest eagle ever known showed it was real.
What was reported
Some Māori traditions speak of the pouakai or hōkioi, a huge bird of prey said to swoop down on people. When scientists began studying New Zealand's fossils, they found the bones of a massive eagle, described by Julius von Haast in 1871.
Haast's eagle weighed up to around 15 kg, with talons as large as a tiger's claws, the biggest eagle known to have lived.
Explanations offered
It hunted moa, giant flightless birds that could weigh 200 kg or more. When the moa were hunted to extinction after people arrived, the eagle died out too, around 1400. Whether the traditions preserve real memories of it is debated, but they fit what the bones show.
- When
- Extinct around 1400
- Where
- Canterbury, South Island, New Zealand
- Witnesses
- Māori tradition, and fossil hunters
- Status
- Confirmed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.