New
Zealand provides a manageable case study of the process of ecological
transformation--the creation of a neo-Europe
historians don't just make generalizations, they look at how the story unfolds in a particular time and place
how do you decide any given example is typical? or do you want to use an extreme example because it highlights the issues
It was particularly unique because of its extreme isolation
one way to think about an ecosystem is as a series of niches--ecological opportunities
what fills these niches if the usual animals aren't there?
A
flightless songbird--one of only three flightless songbirds ever known
and the world's smallest
the largest flightless birds, the moas, filled the niche of grazing animals
All 11 species of Moa were hunted to extinction by the Maori in the 13th and 14th century. They only laid one or two eggs at a time and took 10 years to grow to maturity so were wiped out easily.
"Second only in weight to the extinct elephant bird of Madagascar, the largest moa was the tallest bird on earth, with the top of its' back 6 feet above the ground" (source)
The largest Moa still weighed over 500 lbs. They ate mostly bushes and the lower branches of trees. Their beaks were strong, able
The Haast's eagle, with wingspan of 3 meters, preyed on the Moa and died out with it
The environment needed to be transformed to make it appealing to European settlers
Maori adopted European ways with enthusiasm (more Maori history)
historians don't just make generalizations, they look at how the story unfolds in a particular time and place
how do you decide any given example is typical? or do you want to use an extreme example because it highlights the issues
It was particularly unique because of its extreme isolation
- 89% of native plants are endemic (exist nowhere else in the world)
- before the aborigines
(Maori) arrived there were no land mammals but
the bat (therefore birds took many of the ecological niches usually
taken by mammals, including grazing animals)
- also the culture of the people was unusual
one way to think about an ecosystem is as a series of niches--ecological opportunities
what fills these niches if the usual animals aren't there?
giant
weta
an insect that takes the ecological niche of a mouse--
unfortunately cats think them great entertainment
Another animal filling the niche
of the mouse was the Stephens Island Wrenan insect that takes the ecological niche of a mouse--
unfortunately cats think them great entertainment
A
flightless songbird--one of only three flightless songbirds ever known
and the world's smallest- Lived on a one square mile
island off the northern tip of the South Island--a remnant of the
ecosystem as it had been before the Maori brought with them rats
- "It was only seen live on
two occasions when it was disturbed from holes in rocks. It was thought
to have been semi nocturnal and ran very fast like a mouse." (source)
- At the Ornithologists Club in London in 1894 a collector proudly displayed 10 specimens of the wren that had been killed by the lighthouse keeper's cat
- He also annouced that the
species was now extinct due to the cat
the largest flightless birds, the moas, filled the niche of grazing animals
All 11 species of Moa were hunted to extinction by the Maori in the 13th and 14th century. They only laid one or two eggs at a time and took 10 years to grow to maturity so were wiped out easily.
"Second only in weight to the extinct elephant bird of Madagascar, the largest moa was the tallest bird on earth, with the top of its' back 6 feet above the ground" (source)
The largest Moa still weighed over 500 lbs. They ate mostly bushes and the lower branches of trees. Their beaks were strong, able
The Haast's eagle, with wingspan of 3 meters, preyed on the Moa and died out with it
The environment needed to be transformed to make it appealing to European settlers
- the climate was suitable
- they set out to change the
ecosystem
- the Maori took up growing potatoes, giving them something to trade with Europeans
- pigs went wild quickly and the population grew
- some weeds (white clover)
couldn't spread without insect pollination--bees were brought in 1839
- you couldn't have a lot of
grazing animals until European grasses spread
- some more organized societies almost immediately saw the Europeans as a threat
- some people weren't very interested in what the Europeans brought
- the Maori were
different--not technologically sophisticated but well organized and
open to new ideas, had a culture based on warfare
Maori adopted European ways with enthusiasm (more Maori history)
- the Maori grew cash crops and raised pigs to sell the the Europeans
- they wanted iron tools and axes and muskets for inter-tribal warfare
- Europeans sold them large numbers of guns
- they weakened themselves by fighting among themselves
- missionaries introduced the plow in 1820
- they learned quickly from
the Europeans, even building mills to grind the grain they had stated
to grow
- few bacteria that affect humans had made it to New Zealand
- their culture didn't know
how to cope with disease
- their culture made them
vulnerable to verneral disease--practices of sexual hospitality
- In the early 1800s they embraced Christianity and literacy
- (European technology was
equivalent to magic so must have something to do with religion)
- Maori attempts to copy the Europeans and meet them as equals didn't stop the Europeans from stealing their land
- they ignored the claims of the native people or took advantage of different understandings of land ownership
- "Traditional Māori society did not have a concept of absolute ownership of land. Whānau (extended families) and hapū (sub-tribes) could have different rights to the same piece of land. One group may have the right to catch birds in a clump of trees, another to fish in the water nearby, and yet another to grow crops on the surrounding land. Exclusive boundaries were rare, and rights were constantly being renegotiated." (source)
- the 1862
Native Land Act sought to assign individual ownership to Maori land
so it could be readily traded
- side note:
- our modern American system of land ownership is quite unusual
- if you own land you can do anything you want with it
- in other places you often had only partial rights to land (even today)
- many limits on what you
can do with your land
- Maori tried to meet the
Europeans as equals and were cheated
- eventually in the 1850s the Maori resorted to war, and were smart enought to work together
- but already they were already outnumbered by settlers and couldn't sustain the fight
- by 1870 only 1/5 the population were Maori
Europeans took control of the land by force
- Europeans had developed the expectation that they could replace the native people
- in North and Central America disease was the largest factor
- sometimes ecology played as
large a role
- they succeeded where they had an ecological advantage, as in New Zealand
- they changed the ecosystem
from the native one to a European one
- in South Africa Europeans had a bigger cultural advantage, but they failed because they didn't have an ecological advantage
- warfare, disease and changing the ecology were parts of how the Europeans succeeded almost everywhere, but the balance varied from place to place