Editing Pouākai

{{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 mythology|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 small child.<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>
[[File:Pouakai 1000x1000.png|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 people|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&nbsp;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 [[adzebill]]s, [[Finsch's duck|flightless ducks]], and [[New Zealand goose|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 (mythology)|Hakawai]]
* [[Folk memory]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Mythological birds of prey]]
[[Category:Māori legendary creatures]]