History
Archeological work has revealed that Xenicus lyalli was widespread on the main islands of New Zealand in earlier times. Its disappearance from there was probably due to predation by the kiore (Polynesian Rat, Rattus exulans), which may have been introduced by the Māori. The presence of a flightless bird on an island separated from the mainland by 3.2 km may seem puzzling, along with the presence of Hamilton's frog (which is killed by exposure to salt water). One possibility is that rafts of vegetable matter allowed them to cross, although the absence of kiore would then be surprising. Stephens Island, along with the other islands in the Marlborough Sounds, was joined to the mainland during the last ice age due to the lower sea level, so the native animals may have arrived then.
Read more about this topic: Stephens Island Wren
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of the prophets. He saw with an open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it, and had his being there. Alone in all history he estimated the greatness of man.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it.”
—Lytton Strachey (1880–1932)
“The steps toward the emancipation of women are first intellectual, then industrial, lastly legal and political. Great strides in the first two of these stages already have been made of millions of women who do not yet perceive that it is surely carrying them towards the last.”
—Ellen Battelle Dietrick, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 13, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)