On 6/7/08, Bob W, discombobulated, unleashed:
>I guess you've never heard of the marsupial killer puffins of
>Rangararatarahoaroa on New Zealand's little-known West Island. In the
>days before human settlement in the islands the marsupial killer
>puffin, called by the local people as Owatanastiphuca ('head-snipping
>bastard bird') was top predator. Because sand eels are virtually
>unknown there the puffin evolved to take the thing which most closely
>resembled sand eels - the elongated neck of the giant moa.
>
>The giant moa, as you know, stood upright at about 1.8 metres or 6'
>tall. So when the first human settlers arrived on the island, standing
>about the same height as a giant moa, they looked to the puffin like a
>might tasty addition to the diet.
>
>This killer puffin, which was scarcely larger than the friendly
>creatures we know from the land of Njal, had evolved a much larger
>beak, whose colours blended with the local flora, and an incredibly
>strong neck. So the bird would hide in the trees of West Island and
>swoop down on the unwary humans, snip their head off, and take the
>torso back to the nest. Imagine the sight of a puffin's beak
>containing a line of floppy headless humans instead of sand eels!
>
>Eventually the people abandoned their attempts to settle
>Rangararatarahoaroa, and it has always been left to the marsupial
>killer puffins. So dangerous are they that West Island is not allowed
>to be featured on maps of New Zealand, but those of us who've
>travelled in the area have stumbled across it, about 20 leagues to the
>east of South Island (it's official name is a cunning bluff to throw
>people off the track).
>
>I understand Frans Lanting is planning a photographic trip there, as
>soon as he can find enough people to volunteer as scouts, and a suit
>of armour for himself.
It's a rainy Sunday morning in England, you can tell :)
--
Cheers,
Cotty
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|| (O) | People, Places, Pastiche
||=====| http://www.cottysnaps.com
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