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:
“Humankind has understood history as a series of battles because, to this day, it regards conflict as the central facet of life.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“If you look at the 150 years of modern China’s history since the Opium Wars, then you can’t avoid the conclusion that the last 15 years are the best 15 years in China’s modern history.”
—J. Stapleton Roy (b. 1935)
“When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.”
—William James (1842–1910)