{{Short description|Giant bird in Māori mythology}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=March 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox mythical creature |name = Pouākai |AKA = <!-- Other names used to explicitly refer to the same creature --> |image = Giant Haasts eagle attacking New Zealand moa.jpg |image_size = <!-- Image size in pixels; do not use with image_upright --> |image_upright = <!-- Image size scale factor; do not use with image_size --> |caption = The Haast's eagle, which may have inspired the Pouākai |Folklore = Māori |Grouping = Birds of prey |Sub_Grouping = Eagles |Family = <!-- Attested family members, if applicable --> |Country = New Zealand |Region = South Island |Details = <!-- Any additional details --> |First_Attested = <!-- First attestation (in other words, source) --> |Similar_entities = <!-- Entities described as similar --> }} The {{lang|mi|'''pouākai'''}} (also spelled {{lang|mi|poukai}}) is a monstrous bird in Māori mythology.<ref name="maori legend">{{cite news | last = Rodgers | first = Paul | title = Maori legend of man-eating bird is true | newspaper = The Independent | date = 14 September 2009 | url = https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/maori-legend-of-maneating-bird-is-true-1786867.html | access-date = 14 September 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-07-30 |title=Pouākai – The world's largest eagle |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/stories/2018806223/pouakai-the-world-s-largest-eagle |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=RNZ |language=en-nz}}</ref>
==Mythologies== In some of these legends, the Pouākai kills and eats humans. The myth may refer to the real but now extinct Haast's eagle: the largest known eagle species, which was able to kill an adult moa weighing up to {{convert|230|kg}}, and which potentially had the capability to kill a person.<ref>{{cite news|last=Casey|first=Michael |title=Extinct New Zealand eagle may have eaten humans|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/extinct-zealand-eagle-eaten-humans/story?id=8557686|publisher=ABC News|location=United States |agency=Associated Press |date=14 September 2009}}</ref> thumb|Artist's depiction of a Pouākai
==History== Haast's eagles, which lived only in the east and northwest of New Zealand's South Island, did not become extinct until around two hundred years after the arrival of Māori. Eagles are depicted in early rock-shelter paintings in South Canterbury.<ref name=Worthy_333-334>{{Cite book|title=The Lost World of the Moa|last1=Worthy|first1=Trevor H. |last2=Holdaway |first2=Richard N. |publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2002|isbn=0-253-34034-9|location=Bloomington, IN|pages=333–334}}</ref> Large amounts of the eagle's lowland habitat had been destroyed by burning by AD 1350, and it was driven extinct by overhunting, both directly (Haast's eagle bones have been found in Māori archaeological sites) and indirectly: its main prey species, nine species of moa and other large birds such as adzebills, flightless ducks, and flightless geese, were hunted to extinction at the same time.<ref name=Worthy>{{Cite book|title=The Lost World of the Moa|last1=Worthy|first1=Trevor H. |last2=Holdaway |first2=Richard N. |publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2002|isbn=0-253-34034-9|location=Bloomington, IN}}{{Pages needed|date=August 2019}}</ref>
==See also== * Hakawai * Folk memory
==References== {{Reflist}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Mythological birds of prey Category:Māori legendary creatures